CAN ASPIRIN PROLONG GOOD HEALTH?
Based on quality evidence, doctors prescribe daily low-dose aspirin to people who have had a heart attack or stroke to help prevent that event from reoccurring. Aspirin may help older people to live well for longer by delaying the onset of illnesses in the first place. In fact, previous studies have shown that low-dose aspirin:
- Reduces the risk of heart attack, stroke and vascular events in middle aged people
- May help to prevent cognitive decline, depression and forms of cancer such as bowel cancer
However, aspirin is known to have adverse-effects, such as bleeding, that may offset its benefits. Before doctors can know for sure if aspirin is helpful in prolonging healthy, disability-free life in older people, the benefits must be weighed against the risks.
There have been no clinical aspirin studies focussed on older people; as we age we have the most to gain from the beneficial actions of aspirin but we are also at risk from aspirin’s bleeding side effects. So ASPREE will determine for the first time, the balance of aspirin’s effects in healthy older people.
ASPREE (
ASPirin in
Reducing
Events in the
Elderly) is an international clinical trial to determine whether daily low-dose aspirin increases survival, free of dementia and physical disability for healthy older people. The randomised, double blind, placebo-controlled study will assess aspirin for prevention of cardiovascular disease, dementia, depression and some cancers and is being undertaken in more than 19,000 participants in Australia and the USA.
Led by Monash University in Australia and the Berman Center for Outcomes and Clinical Research in the USA, the trial uses a composite outcome of years of life free from physical and cognitive disability.
In Australia, several ancillary studies investigate the effect of aspirin on specific diseases: age-related macular degeneration, cancer, osteoarthritis, bone fractures, severe infection, sleep apnoea, age-related hearing loss and microvascular changes in the brain.
ASPREE is primarily conducted through general practices in south-eastern Australia and through clinics and the community in the USA. Recruitment closed in December 2014 with clinical research continuing until 2017. Results are expected in 2018.
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