Daily aspirin for healthy pensioners may do more harm than good, major new study finds

Taking aspirin every day may cause pensioners more harm the good, a major new study has concluded.

Research into nearly 20,000 older people found those who were generally healthy derived no  protective benefit from the blood-thinning pill - but it increased their risk of dangerous bleeds.

In the UK, GPs generally do not advise aspirin for pensioners who have not previously suffered cardiovascular problems, such as a heart attack or stroke.

However, experts warned last night that tens of thousands of healthy people may be self-medicating with the over-the-counter drug on the basis of flawed belief as to its benefits.

For those who had previously survived a cardiovascular event, regular aspirin was beneficial, the study found.

Scientists at Monash University in Australia enrolled 19,114 people aged 65 and older in Australia and the US, randomly giving them a daily low-dose aspirin or a placebo.

The participants were then followed for an average of 4.7 years.

Among the people randomly assigned to take aspirin, 90.3 per cent remained alive at the end of the treatment without a persistent physical disability or dementia, compared to 90.5 of those taking a placebo.

Meanwhile the group taking aspirin had a slightly increased risk of death overall compared to the placebo group - 5.9 per cent compared to 5.2 per cent.

The rates of cardiovascular events - the main reason many people take the daily pill - were similar, with 448 events in the aspirin group compared to 474 in the placebo group.

However, significant bleeding, such as in the gastrointestinal tract the brain occurred in 361 aspirin takers compared to only 356 of those on the placebo.

Professor Stephen Evans, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said: “The small benefit on heart disease was outweighed by overall increases in other diseases and suggests that in healthy older people without heart disease there is no benefit to low-dose aspirin."

Scientists have expressed surprise that overall death rates were higher among people in the study taking aspirin, a finding not seen in previous research.

They put this down to a higher rate of deaths from cancer but said this could have been down to chance and cautioned against inferring links between taking aspirin and a greater chance of developing the disease.

"Clinical guidelines note the benefits of aspirin for preventing heart attacks and strokes in persons with vascular conditions such as coronary artery disease," said Dr Richard Hodes, director of the US National Institute of Ageing, which partly funded the research.

"The concern has been uncertainty about whether aspirin is beneficial for otherwise healthy older people without those conditions.

“This study shows why it is so important to conduct this type of research, so that we can gain a fuller picture of aspirin's benefits and risks among healthy older persons."

Dr June Raine, from the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, said: “Any new significant information which may impact on the balance and benefits and risks will be carefully reviewed and independent scientific advice on the need for regulatory action will be sought if required.”