52 percent of Americans aged 45-75 use aspirin

A national survey suggests that slightly more than half of the older adults in the United States are now taking a daily dose of aspirin, even though its use is not recommended by the Food and Drug Administration for most people who have not yet had a heart attack or stroke.

The analysis was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. It observed that aspirin use is continuing to surge, especially among adults who are using it for “primary prevention,” meaning in order to prevent an initial cardiovascular event, and in some cases to prevent cancer.

In this survey of more than 2,500 respondents aged 45-75, 52 percent reported current aspirin use, and another 21 percent had used it at some point in the past. The average age of respondents in the survey was 60. A different report found that aspirin use increased 57 percent between 2005 and 2010.

Aspirin is a blood thinner and can cause bleeding events, which is a primary reason some medical experts recommend caution in its use, even at the “baby aspirin” dose of 81 milligrams often used for disease prevention. The FDA has determined that in primary use to prevent a first heart attack or stroke, for every such event that’s prevented, there’s approximately one major bleeding event that’s caused, such as gastrointestinal bleeding.

Largely on that basis, they have concluded physicians should routinely recommend its use only to patients that have already had a heart attack or stroke. But this study found that 81 percent of older adults who are now using aspirin have not had a heart attack or stroke, and are taking it for primary prevention.

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