Study Shows Aspirin Has No Effect on Older Adults' Lifespan

A U.S. National Institutes of Health-supported study published in the New England Journal of Medicine determined that daily, low-dose aspirin has no effect on the lifespan of healthy older people, reports the Richmond Register . The ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) trial enrolled more than 16,000 persons in the United States and Australia in 2010 and tracked their health over several years. Daily treatment with 100 mg of low-dose aspirin did not impact survival free of dementia or disability. Among the seniors randomly assigned to take aspirin, 90.3 percent were still alive at the end of the treatment without persistent physical disability or dementia, versus 90.5 percent of those taking a placebo. Rates of physical disability were similar and rates of dementia were almost identical in both cohorts. Analysis of the ASPREE results showed 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 had cardiovascular events, compared with 474 in the placebo group. The risk of death from a range of causes, including cancer and heart disease, was variable.