Task Force Recommends Using Aspirin To Prevent Cardiovascular Disease When the Benefits Outweigh the Harms

Task Force Recommends Using Aspirin To Prevent Cardiovascular Disease When the Benefits Outweigh the Harms
Press Release Date: March 16, 2009

Patients and clinicians should consider risk factors—including age, gender, diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, smoking and risk of gastrointestinal bleeding—before deciding whether to use aspirin to prevent heart attacks or strokes, according to new recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. These recommendations do not apply to people who have already had a heart attack or stroke.

Patients and clinicians should consider risk factors--including age, gender, diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, smoking and risk of gastrointestinal bleeding--before deciding whether to use aspirin to prevent heart attacks or strokes, according to new recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The Task Force found good evidence that aspirin decreases first heart attacks in men and first strokes in women. The more risk factors for cardiovascular disease a person has, the more likely they are to benefit from aspirin. The Task Force recommends that men between the ages of 45 and 79 should use aspirin to reduce their risk for heart attacks when the benefits outweigh the harms for potential gastrointestinal bleeding. (A recommendation) Women between the ages of 55 and 79 should use aspirin to reduce their risk for ischemic stroke when the benefits outweigh the harms for potential gastrointestinal bleeding. (A recommendation) Because heart attacks are less likely to occur in men younger than 45 and ischemic strokes are less likely to occur in women younger than 55, and because limited evidence exists in these age groups, the Task Force recommended against using aspirin to prevent either strokes or heart disease in men under 45 or women under 55. (D recommendation) The Task Force could not find clear evidence that the benefits of using aspirin outweigh the risks in people 80 years or older. (I statement)

The recommendations are published in the March 17 issue of the Annals of internal Medicine and are available on the AHRQ Web site at http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstf/uspsasmi.htm.


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Task Force Recommends Using Aspirin To Prevent Cardiovascular Disease When the Benefits Outweigh the Harms