There is good evidence that a daily baby aspirin reduces the risk for heart disease and stroke, and some have thought its inflammation-lowering effect might also help in delaying cognitive decline. But taking a daily low-dose aspirin did not appear to be effective in lowering the risk of Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia, a new study reports.
For the study, in Neurology, researchers set up a controlled trial with 19,114 men and women older than 70 who were free of cardiovascular disease and dementia at the start.
Half were randomly assigned to take a daily 100-milligram aspirin, while the other half took a placebo.
After an average follow-up of almost five years with annual examinations, the researchers found no difference between the groups in diagnoses of Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment. They did find declining cognitive function over time, but the speed and degree of that decline was the same in both groups.
The researchers found no effect in various subgroups either — people with hypertension or diabetes, smokers or people with high cholesterol, or those who were overweight or obese. A limitation of the study was that patients were followed for less than five years.
“If you’re 70 or older and healthy, without evidence of cardiovascular disease, it’s very difficult to improve on your success. The relatively low risk of dementia in this study was not further lowered with aspirin,” said a co-author, Dr. Anne B. Newman, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh.
