Efficacy of Aspirin for primary prevention among adults with high-risk type 2 diabetes in the ACCORD trial

Abstract

Aim: To assess the efficacy of aspirin use for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) with incident atherosclerotic CVD and mortality in high-risk type 2 diabetes.

Methods: In this post hoc analysis, we included participants in the ACCORD trial without CVD at baseline. The association between aspirin use and the primary outcome (a composite of nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke or cardiovascular [CV] death) and all-cause mortality was evaluated using Cox proportional hazard analysis adjusting for demographics, CV risk factors and comorbidities.

Results: Eligible participants (n = 6330) were aged 62.8 ± 5.9 years at baseline, 43.8% of the participants were female, and 3026 (47.8%) used aspirin. Over a median (interquartile range) follow-up of 4.9 (4.1-5.7) years, the number (%) of primary outcome and all-cause mortality events in those who used aspirin (vs. those who did not), was 196 (6.5) versus 229 (6.9) and 146 (4.8) versus 147 (4.5), respectively. The adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) associated with aspirin use for the primary outcome and all-cause mortality were 0.94 (0.77-1.14) and 1.08 (0.85-1.36), respectively.

Conclusion: In high-risk individuals with type 2 diabetes, the use of aspirin for primary prevention was not associated with a decreased risk of incident CVD or all-cause mortality.

Keywords: aspirin; primary prevention; type 2 diabetes.