Women who take low to moderate doses of aspirin have a reduced risk of death from any cause, especially heart disease-related deaths, according to a new study published on Monday.
Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston examined the association between aspirin use and death in 79,439 women enrolled in the study.
Beginning in 1980 and again every two years through 2004, the women were asked if they used aspirin regularly, and if so, how many tablets they typically took per week. At the beginning of the study, the women had no history of cardiovascular disease or cancer.
The study reported that a total of 45,305 women did not use aspirin; 29,132 took low to moderate doses (one to 14 standard 325-milligram tablets of aspirin per week); and 5,002 took more than 14 tablets per week.
By June 1, 2004, 9,477 of the women had died, 1,991 of heart disease and 4,469 of cancer. Women who reported using aspirin currently had a 25 percent lower risk of death from any cause than women who never used aspirin regularly.
The association was stronger for death from cardiovascular disease (women who used aspirin had a 38 percent lower risk) than for death from cancer (women who used aspirin had a 12 percent lower risk), according to the study published in the March 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.
"Use of aspirin for one to five years was associated with significant reductions in cardiovascular mortality," said the study.
"In contrast, a significant reduction in risk of cancer deaths was not observed until after 10 years of aspirin use. The benefit associated with aspirin was confined to low and moderate doses and was significantly greater in older participants and those with more cardiac risk factors."
There are several mechanisms by which aspirin could reduce the risk of death, the authors note. "Aspirin therapy may influence cardiovascular disease and cancer through its effect on common pathogenic pathways such as inflammation, insulin resistance, oxidative stress [damage to the cells caused by oxygen exposure] and cyclo-oxygenase (COX) enzyme activity," also linked to inflammation, according to the study.
Because the study looked at women who made the decision themselves whether or not to take aspirin, as opposed to a clinical trial where women are randomly assigned to aspirin or a placebo, the results do not suggest that all women should take aspirin.
"Nevertheless, these data support a need for continued investigation of the use of aspirin for chronic disease prevention," the study concluded.
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