Aspirin increases upper GI bleeding for older people

Research scheduled to be presented at the cancelled Digestive Disease Week conference in Chicago, USA in early May 2020 has assessed of specific aspect of safety data on on over 19,000 patients in the famous Aspree study, where just over 9,500 patients were assigned to receive aspirin and a similar number received placebo. There were 264 serious GI bleeding events (137 were upper GI events, 89 amongst those treated with aspirin and 48 for those receiving placebo – HR = 1.87; 95% CI, 1.32-2.66). The risk for lower GI events (observed in 73 people in the aspirin vs 54 receiving placebo) was not found to be significantly increased for those receiving the active anti-platelet intervention. Older age, smoking, chronic kidney disease and NSAID use conferred additional risk for upper GI bleeding. The absolute, 5-year serious bleeding risk was up to 5.5% for people 80 years of age of older taking aspirin in the presence of significant risk factors. Importantly, Proton Pump Inhibitor (PPI) treatment did not appear to confer protection against bleeding events. The abstract for the study was published in the journal, Gastroenterology