A study from Australia “adds to the evidence” that daily low-dose aspirin “provides little favorable benefit in a healthy, White older adult population.” Aspirin failed to reduce fracture risk while increasing the risk of serious falls, ASPREE-FRACTURE data show.
Community-dwelling adults aged 70 years or older began participating in the trial from 2010 to 2014. They were randomized to an oral enteric-coated aspirin 100 mg (low dose) or an identical enteric-coated placebo tablet. The primary outcome of the double-blind trial was the occurrence of any fracture, and the secondary outcome was a serious fall resulting in hospital presentation.
“In total, 16,703 people with a median (IQR) age of 74 (72-78) years were recruited, and 9,179 (55.0%) were women,” the authors report. “There were 8,322 intervention participants and 8,381 control participants included in the primary and secondary outcome analysis of 2,865 fractures and 1,688 serious falls over the median follow-up of 4.6 years. While there was no difference in the risk of first fracture between the intervention and control participants (hazard ratio, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.87-1.06; P = .50), aspirin was associated with a higher risk of serious falls (total falls 884 vs 804; incidence rate ratio, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.03-1.33; P = .01). Results remained unchanged in analyses that adjusted for covariates known to influence fracture and fall risk.”