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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Aspirin for everyone older than 50?
— for and against | | Author(s) | Peter Elwood, Gareth Morgan, Ginevra Brown |
| Corporate Author | Welsh Aspirin Group, Department of Epidemiology, Statistics and Public Health, Cardiff University |
| Journal title | British Medical Journal, vol 330, no 7505, 18 June 2005 |
| Pages | pp 1440-1443 |
| Source | http://www.bmj.com |
| Keywords | Drugs ; Cardiovascular diseases ; Advisory services [elderly]. |
| Annotation | Current population screening for vascular disease is neither efficient nor effective. The authors believe that there should be a public information strategy highlighting the benefits (and risks) of aspirin for older people. They note that it is 30 years since the first randomised trial was published showing a link between aspirin and myocardial infarction. Now, the evidence supports more widespread use of aspirin prophylaxis, but that older people need to be given the information to make their own decision. The evidence focuses on the crucial question, namely, at what age does the balance between benefit and risk justify low dose aspirin prophylaxis? Of further relevance is a possible reduction of cancer and dementia by aspirin. Putting the case against, Colin Baigent argues that the evidence of benefit is not yet strong, and notes two important problems. First, the balance of benefits and risks of aspirin at age 70+ has not been clearly defined in randomised trials, and the benefits do not clearly exceed the risks in younger people without vascular disease. Consequently, it would be unwise to adopt such a policy, whatever age threshold is chosen, until we are sure that older patients will derive net benefit from it. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-050624203 A |
| Classmark | LLD: CQ: IT * |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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