Despite 2019 recommendations from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association warning adults against routinely taking aspirin for heart health, many are still doing so, according to a new study from Cleveland Clinic researchers.
The guidance from 2019 said, "aspirin is well established for secondary prevention of [atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease] and is widely recommended for this indication, but recent studies have shown that in the modern era, aspirin should not be used in the routine primary prevention of ASCVD due to lack of net benefit."
The Cleveland Clinic-led study, published June 25 in Annals of Internal Medicine, found that although aspirin use did decrease after the new guidelines were announced in 2019, by 2021 nearly one-third of adults older than 60 were still taking aspirin for heart health. Of those individuals, around 1 in 20 were doing so without the advice of a physician.
The study analyzed data from the National Health Interview Survey Sample, which included information on around 150 million adults from 2012 to 2019, and also from 2021 for comparison.