The blood thinner can raise the likelihood of gastrointestinal bleeding, especially in people over 60. Here’s what to know.
New research suggests that as many as 18.5 million older adults regularly take aspirin to prevent the onset of cardiovascular disease, even though the drug’s risks outweigh its benefits for many of those patients.
The new study, published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, examined self-reported data from more than 186,000 adults across the United States and found that nearly one-third of those age 60 or older without cardiovascular disease were using aspirin in 2021. The drug is generally not recommended for those patients, in large part because it increases the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding.
“Some of this use is potentially harmful, because it may cause more bleeding than it offers cardiovascular protection, in these older adults especially,” said Dr. Mohak Gupta, an author of the study and a senior resident physician at Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Valentin Fuster, the president of the Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital and former president of the American Heart Association, said he was concerned that so many patients who won’t benefit from aspirin were still taking it, and that in many cases, doctors seem to have advised these patients to use the drug.
“It’s not actually the patients that get in their own way,” said Dr. Fuster, who was not involved in the study. (The study did find, however, that doctors recommended the drug less often in 2021 than they had in previous years.)
Who should take a daily aspirin?
Aspirin works by thinning the blood, which lowers the risk of blood clots that can clog arteries and lead to a heart attack or stroke. For many years, doctors recommended taking a low dose of aspirin to prevent heart disease.