Five years after updated recommendations, many adults still believe daily low-dose aspirin outweighs bleeding risks. A new study reveals that nearly half of adults incorrectly perceive the benefits outweighing the risks. New guidelines suggest aspirin use for heart disease prevention is limited to those with a high risk.
February 5, 2025 – Taking a daily aspirin? It could be worth asking yourself why, and if it’s still the best choice for you. That’s because it’s been five years since recommendations began changing about who should take the tiny little pill to prevent heart problems, and new data shows that 48% of adults still mistakenly believe the benefits of taking a low-dose aspirin every day to reduce the chance of a heart attack or stroke outweigh the risks.
Many people are unaware of the bleeding risks – particularly in the gut – from using low-dose aspirin preventively. In 2022, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force updated its guidelines, stating that people ages 60 and older shouldn’t take it for prevention, and people ages 40 to 59 may consider doing so if they have a 10% or greater risk of having a disease of their heart or blood vessels within the next 10 years. About 18% of people – which is nearly 1 in 5 – say they take preventive low-dose aspirin even though they have never had a heart attack or stroke and don’t have a family history. Among them, a little over half said they take aspirin “basically every day,” and the remainder took it a few times a week or a few times a month, according to the study. Among people ages 60 and older with no personal or family history of a heart attack or stroke, 22% said they take daily low-dose aspirin. People may be taking low-dose aspirin because they heard about it long ago and began using it on their own, or because it was recommended before the guidelines changed and they haven’t had an updated conversation about it with their health care provider. “Habits backed by conventional wisdom and the past advice of health care providers are hard to break,” Kathleen Hall Jamieson, PhD, director of the survey project, said in a statement.Low-dose aspirin can be beneficial to thin the blood in some people who have specific risk factors, particularly if they’ve previously had a heart attack or stroke and don’t have a higher bleeding risk. It’s not entirely surprising that the change in recommendations is taking so long to become well understood by the general public. Even in the medical field, awareness and implementation of the updated guidelines take time. People can work with their health care provider to estimate their risk of serious heart problems and make a prevention plan. Online tools and calculators are also available, and they typically involve entering demographic information like your age and entering some health metrics like blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
Aspirin Heart Health Stroke Prevention Bleeding Risks US Preventive Services Task Force
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