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Study:
Daily
aspirin
likely
won’t
prolong
life
By
Amanda
Cuda
ctpost.com
Bad
news
older
Americans
— taking
an
aspirin
every
day
likely
won’t
extend
your
lifespan.
According
to a
study
partially
funded
by the
National
Institutes
of
Health,
a large
clinical
trial to
determine
the
risks
and
benefits
of daily
low-dose
aspirin
in
healthy
older
adults
without
previous
cardiovascular
events
showed
that
aspirin
did not
prolong
healthy
living
free of
dementia
or
persistent
physical
disability.
These
initial
findings
from the
ASPirin
in
Reducing
Events
in the
Elderly
(ASPREE)
trial,
were
published
online
Sunday
in three
papers
in The
New
England
Journal
of
Medicine.
ASPREE
is an
international,
randomized,
double-blind,
placebo-controlled
trial
that
enrolled
16,703
in
Australia
and
2,411 in
the
United
States.
The
study
began in
2010 and
enrolled
participants
aged 70
and
older;
65 was
the
minimum
age of
entry
for
black
and
Hispanic
individuals
in the
United
States
because
of their
higher
risk for
dementia
and
cardiovascular
disease.
At study
enrollment,
ASPREE
participants
could
not have
dementia
or a
physical
disability
and had
to be
free of
medical
conditions
requiring
aspirin
use.
They
were
followed
for an
average
of 4.7
years to
determine
outcomes.
According
to a
news
release,
the
total
study
population,
treatment
with 100
milligram
of
low-dose
aspirin
per day
did not
affect
survival
free of
dementia
or
disability.
Actually,
group
taking
aspirin
had a
slightly
higher
risk of
death
that the
placebo
group —
5.9
percent
of
participants
taking
aspirin
and 5.2
percent
taking
placebo
died
during
the
study.
However,
a new
release
from the
NIH
cautioned
against
reading
too much
into
that
finding,
and
stated
that the
higher
death
rate in
the
aspirin-treated
group
was due
primarily
to a
higher
rate of
cancer
deaths.
“A
small
increase
in new
cancer
cases
was
reported
in the
group
taking
aspirin
but the
difference
could
have
been due
to
chance,”
the
release
stated.
Among
the
people
randomly
assigned
to take
aspirin,
90.3
percent
remained
alive at
the end
of the
treatment
without
persistent
physical
disability
or
dementia,
compared
with
90.5
percent
of those
taking a
placebo.
Rates of
physical
disability
were
similar,
and
rates of
dementia
were
almost
identical
in both
groups.
The
researchers
also
analyzed
the
ASPREE
results
to
determine
whether
cardiovascular
events
took
place.
They
found
that the
rates
for
major
cardiovascular
events —
including
coronary
heart
disease,
nonfatal
heart
attacks,
and
fatal
and
nonfatal
ischemic
stroke —
were
similar
in the
aspirin
and the
placebo
groups.
In the
aspirin
group,
448
people
experienced
cardiovascular
events,
compared
with 474
people
in the
placebo
group.
Significant
bleeding,
a known
risk of
regular
aspirin
use, was
also
measured.
The
investigators
noted
that
aspirin
was
associated
with a
significantly
increased
risk of
bleeding,
primarily
in the
gastrointestinal
tract
and
brain.
Clinically
significant
bleeding
—
hemorrhagic
stroke,
bleeding
in the
brain,
gastrointestinal
hemorrhages
or
hemorrhages
at other
sites
that
required
transfusion
or
hospitalization
—
occurred
in 361
people
(3.8
percent)
on
aspirin
and in
265 (2.7
percent)
taking
the
placebo.
As
would be
expected
in an
older
adult
population,
cancer
was a
common
cause of
death,
and 50
percent
of the
people
who died
in the
trial
had some
type of
cancer.
Heart
disease
and
stroke
accounted
for 19
percent
of the
deaths
and
major
bleeding
for 5
percent.
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