Loading...
About half of older U.S. adults report daily aspirin use. However, three large primary prevention randomized trials (ASPREE, ASCEND, and ARRIVE) have demonstrated an ≈1% absolute increase in major gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding among patients who take daily aspirin (vs. placebo), without improvement in other relevant outcomes. Investigators assessed >18,000 healthy older patients (age, ≥65) from the ASPREE trial who had been randomized to aspirin (100 mg daily) or placebo for primary cardiovascular prevention. Participants were followed for ≥5 years (NEJM JW Gen Med Oct 15 2018 and N Engl J Med 2018; 379:1499, 1509, 1519).
Patients who received aspirin were significantly more likely to develop anemia within 5 years than were patients who rec…