Taking aspirin is associated with a 26% increased risk of heart failure in people who have at least one predisposing factor for the condition, a new German study shows today.
It is the first study to report that those who have predisposing factors, such as smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, were more likely to develop heart failure than those who do not take aspirin.
The findings are published in the latest ESC Heart Failure.
Study author Dr Blerim Mujaj, of the University of Freiburg, said: “While the findings require confirmation, they do indicate that the potential link between aspirin and heart failure needs to be clarified.”
The analysis included 30,827 individuals, 34% of whom were women, at risk for developing heart failure and who were enrolled from Western Europe and the USA into the HOMAGE study.
Participants were aged 40 years and over – with an average age of 67 – and none had heart failure when they were recruited.
Aspirin use was recorded at enrolment and participants were classified as users or non-users and were followed-up for the first incidence of fatal or non-fatal heart failure that required hospital treatment.
At baseline, 7,698 participants (25%) were taking aspirin and during the 5.3-year follow-up, 1,330 participants developed heart failure.
After adjusting the results for a number of factors, the research team found taking aspirin was independently associated with a 26% raised risk of a new heart failure diagnosis.
They went on to repeat the analysis after matching aspirin users and non-users for heart failure risk factors and, in this analysis, aspirin was associated with a 26% raised risk of a new heart failure diagnosis.
When the analysis was repeated, after excluding patients with a history of cardiovascular disease, it included 22,690 participants (74%) who were free of cardiovascular disease and aspirin use was associated with a 27% increased risk of incident heart failure.
Dr Mujaj said: “This was the first large study to investigate the relationship between aspirin use and incident heart failure in individuals with and without heart disease and at least one risk factor. Aspirin is commonly used – in our study one in four participants were taking the medication. In this population, aspirin use was associated with incident heart failure, independent of other risk factors.”
Mujaj B, Zhang ZY, Yang WY, et al. Aspirin use is associated with increased risk for incident heart failure: a patient-level pooled-analysis. ESC Heart Fail 23 November 2021; doi:10.1002/ehf2.13688.
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