Aspirin: daily dose not risk free
11 January 2012
Taking aspirin daily to reduce the chance of heart attack and stroke could do more harm than good, UK researchers say.
The team used a meta-analysis (a statistical technique that combines the results of several other studies) of 9 randomised placebo controlled trials, to look at data for more than 100,000 patients.
The researchers concluded that taking aspirin as a preventive in people without cardiovascular disease does not lead to reductions in cardiovascular death, and routine use of aspirin for prevention of a first heart attack or stroke is not warranted as the benefits are offset by clinically important bleeding events. They cautioned that people without a history of cardiovascular disease should seek advice rather than self-medicate with aspirin.
Over an average follow up of six years, aspirin reduced total cardiovascular disease events by 10 per cent, mainly due to a reduction in non-fatal heart attack. However, there was no significant reduction found for fatal heart attack, stroke, death from cardiovascular disease or cancer.
Analysis also showed a 70 per cent excess risk of total bleeding events and more than 30 per cent excess risk of non-trivial bleeding events in people taking aspirin daily. Excess risk is a measure used by statisticians to compare increased incidence of something in one population versus another.
Lead researcher Dr Kausik Ray from St George's University of London was quoted as telling heartwire: "On a routine basis I would not recommend aspirin use in primary prevention. And it certainly should not be put in a polypill for mass use."
Note: This study does not apply to people who already have cardiovascular disease or who have had a heart attack or stroke. Talk to your doctor if you have any concerns about your medicines or if you are thinking of changing your medicines.
Arch Intern Med 2012, online 9 Jan
Last Reviewed: 12 January 2012
- Seshasai SRK, Wijesuriya S, Sivakumaran R et al. Effect of aspirin on vascular and nonvascular outcomes. Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Arch Intern Med. Published online January 9, 2012. http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/archinternmed.2011.628 (accessed Jan 2012).
