Low-dose aspirin linked to trend toward reduced risk for ischemic cardiac disease in whites, not blacks
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 11, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Low-dose aspirin is used less consistently by blacks than whites for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and its impact on ischemic cardiac disease varies by race, according to a study published online Dec. 11 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Rodrigo Fernández-Jiménez, M.D., Ph.D., from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues examined patterns of low-dose aspirin use and its role in the prevention of CVD among 65,231 non-Hispanic black and white adults aged 40 to 79 years with no history of CVD.
The researchers found that regardless of CVD risk and significant covariates, blacks were less likely to take low-dose aspirin than whites (adjusted odds ratio, 0.79; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.75 to 0.82). Low-dose aspirin was associated with a trend toward a reduced risk for ischemic cardiac deaths in whites during a median follow-up of 11.3 years (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.86; 95 percent CI, 0.68 to 1.10), especially in women (aHR, 0.72; 95 percent CI, 0.51 to 1.02); this trend was not seen in blacks (aHR, 1.18; 95 percent CI, 0.98 to 1.40). When the analysis was restricted to high-risk individuals aged 50 to 69 years or 50 to 59 years, the results were similar.
“Although additional studies are required, these findings provide no evidence of a beneficial effect of aspirin use among blacks for CVD primary prevention,” the authors write.
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