Aspirin Lowers Risk of Stroke in Older Women, Study Finds

Middle-age women can significantly reduce their risk of stroke by regularly taking low doses of aspirin, according to a new study that healthcare experts say will have major public health implications.

The expansive Women's Health Study (WHS), which monitored 40,000 female health professionals ages 45 and older, found that taking regular, 100-mg doses of Bayer Aspirin reduced the risk of a first stroke in apparently healthy women by 17 percent. The aspirin regimen was even more effective against ischemic stroke, reducing the risk of that condition by 24 percent. Ischemic strokes account for approximately 80 percent of all strokes.

"The Women's Heath Study is the first large trial to demonstrate a significant benefit of aspirin in the primary prevention of stroke, reinforcing what we know of its efficacy from secondary prevention trials," said Brigham and Women's Hospital's Julie Buring, principal investigator of the WHS. "Although not widely recognized, women tend to suffer more strokes than heart attacks as compared to men, and thus these prevention data for low-dose aspirin have important public health implications."

Aspirin's benefits were most prominent in older women, according to the 10-year randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Women ages 65 and older who received aspirin during the trial were 30 percent less likely to have a stroke, and 26 percent less likely to have a major cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack.

While aspirin was effective in preventing stroke across all age groups participating in the study, the drug only reduced the risk of cardiovascular events in women 65 and older. The sponsors said in the total trial population, which comprised a large number of younger women (ages 45 to 55), low-dose aspirin did not demonstrate a significant benefit in preventing heart attacks or cardiovascular death.