Melbourne, January 23 2013<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Professor John McNeil, Head of Monash University\u2019s Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine and Lead Investigator of the ASPREE trial (pictured left) responds to the recent JAMA article that linked regular aspirin use and age-related macular degeneration (AMD):<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u201cThe relationship between aspirin and AMD is complex and is poorly understood. Only large randomised clinical trials will provide robust, valid evidence as to aspirin\u2019s potential benefits and risks, including AMD,” said Prof McNeil.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u201cThis study did not clearly identify the dose of aspirin, the duration of use and the age of participants that developed the disease, therefore I am extremely cautious around the robustness of the findings.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u201cAlthough the sample size was 2,389 baseline participants this 15 year, non-randomised study, only 257 were regular aspirin users aged 49 and over, which is a relatively small number of participants,\u201d said Prof\u00a0 McNeil.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u201cIt is also possible that other factors not measured in the study could be associated with AMD but not detected. Previous studies on the effect of aspirin on AMD have been inconsistent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n A commentary by authors Dr Sanjay Kaul and Dr George A Diamond that was published in JAMA at the same time, cautioned that the \u2018strength of evidence (in their study) is not sufficiently robust’ to change clinical practice.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Aspirin is one of the most commonly used and well-studied medications in the world. Its preventive health qualities are currently being researched as part of the ASPREE study (ASP<\/strong>irin in\u00a0R<\/strong>educing\u00a0E<\/strong>vents in the\u00a0E<\/strong>lderly), the largest primary prevention aspirin trial ever undertaken in healthy people aged 70 plus.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n For more information please contact ASPREE on 1800 728 745.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Read Prof McNeil’s open letter<\/a> to ASPREE participants<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n <\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ASPREE Principal Investigator to Australia, Prof. John McNeil, puts reports of an aspirin\/AMD study published in JAMA, in context for older adults.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"1200","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18,16],"tags":[79,28],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5755"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8528,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5755\/revisions\/8528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"White](\"https:\/\/aspree.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/03\/Prof_John_McNeil_Monash-e1429681710587.jpg\")
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