Many Older Adults Are Still Taking Daily Aspirin Despite Recent Warnings Not To, Study Finds
A June 2024 study found that a significant number of older Americans continue to use small doses of aspirin to prevent cardiovascular disease despite two major heart associations having reversed their guidance on the practice. In a paper released on June 24 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, some 18.5 million adults aged 60 and older who have no cardiovascular disease reported taking a preventative aspirin in 2021. About 3.3 million of those individuals were taking daily aspirin without a doctor’s recommendation, it said. For decades, a daily dose of 81 milligrams of aspirin was recommended by heart associations and physicians to reduce the chance of developing a heart attack, stroke, or another cardiovascular problem. But in 2019, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association changed their guidelines on daily aspirin usage, saying that it should only be taken infrequently because older adults can see an increased risk of developing internal bleeding. The dai...