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Daily low-dose aspirin fails to prevent AMD in older adults

Key Takeaways

  • Use of daily low-dose aspirin for 3 years didn’t prevent age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in older adults. 
  • The study authors conclude that regular low-dose aspirin use should not be recommended to prevent or treat AMD. 

Use of daily low-dose aspirin for 3 years didn’t prevent AMD in older adults, according to a secondary analysis of the randomized ASPREE (Aspirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly) trial. Of the 3,171 patients analyzed, cumulative AMD incidence was 19.4% in the aspirin group and 19.1% in the placebo group, reported Liubov Robman, MBBS, PhD, of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues in JAMA Ophthalmology. Similarly, there was no significant difference in cumulative progression from early/intermediate AMD to late AMD between the aspirin group and the placebo group (2.3% vs 3.1%, respectively). Analyses of ASPREE participants also showed that low-dose aspirin increased overall gastrointestinal bleeding risk. “To our disappointment, we discovered that regular low-dose aspirin does not prevent the development of new AMD cases,” Robman told MedPage Today. “Regular low-dose aspirin use should not be recommended to prevent or treat AMD.”

Bobeck Sam Modjtahedi, MD, of Kaiser Permanente in Pasadena, California, who wasn’t involved in the study, told MedPage Today that researchers have explored possible links between aspirin use and improvement in AMD for years. “There is an immunologic and inflammatory basis for AMD development, which is why there has been interest in seeing if anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin can modulate the disease,” he said. The study “provides unique perspectives based on its design as a randomized clinical trial, which helps limit some of the methodologic limitations of prior studies that tended to be observational and retrospective in nature,” Modjtahedi continued. “The results appear consistent with our overall impression of aspirin and AMD risk, and add to the body of literature suggesting that aspirin likely doesn’t significantly change AMD risk.” The body of evidence should guide physicians moving forward, Modjtahedi said. 

Edited by Miriam Kaplan, PhD

Source: Randy Dotinga, MedPage Today, May 23, 2024; see source article