It has been established that taking aspirin is beneficial to those who suffered ischemic strokes or heart attacks before, reducing the likelihood of a repeat stroke or attack. What about those who have never had strokes or heart attacks? Is taking aspirin effective in preventing these from happening in the first place?
Researchers from the University Medical Center Utrecht, and the Brigham and Women's Hospital at the Harvard Medical School turned to the Women's Health Study, using data from the randomized trial to develop competing risks models to come up with individualized predictions for risks for cardiovascular disease, major gastrointestinal bleeding and cancer.
Almost 28,000 women at least 45 years old were included in the study. Each one randomly administered a placebo or 100 mg of aspirin every other day. Follow-ups were then carried out for 10 years to determine how many cases of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and gastrointestinal bleeding cropped up in the subjects.
According to the researchers' findings, taking aspirin was connected to slightly lower risks of heart disease, the most common type of stroke and colon cancer. However, taking aspirin was also linked to a higher number of cases of gastrointestinal bleeding, some of which were severe enough to require hospitalization.
In short, for most women who have never had strokes or heart attacks before, there was little benefit or risk in taking aspirin.
Researchers also found that age played a big factor in the study, with both benefits and risks of taking aspirin increasing with age. However, for the most part, there was a balance between benefits and risks for subjects around 65 years old. For women over 65, there were more promising results for taking aspirin comparing to those who didn't.
Researchers were also able to estimate that out of every 32 individuals aged 65 years old and up who took low doses of aspirin for 15 years, there would be one less case of heart disease or cancer than if no medication was taken at all.
Other studies have been carried out to determine the effects of long-term aspirin use but no consensus have been reached. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the American Heart Society, however, recommend that people at high risk of strokes or heart disease consider taking an aspirin daily, but only after consulting with their doctors.
Results were published in the journal Heart. Researchers include: Nancy Cook, Yolanda van der Graaf, Julie Buring, Johannes A N Dorresteijn, Paul Ridker, Frank L J Visseren and Rob C M van Kruijsdijk.
