Aspirin is the Way
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- New research shows aspirin is the most cost-effective way to prevent heart disease.
Researchers from the United Kingdom analyzed the cost effectiveness of aspirin, blood pressure-lowering drugs, cholesterol-lowering drugs, and an anti-clotting medication in preventing heart disease. They then calculated the cost per coronary event for each treatment.
Results of the study show aspirin and blood pressure-lowering drugs are the most cost-effective preventive treatments. Researchers say the cost per cardiac event in patients with a 10 percent risk over five years was less than $6,100 for aspirin, between $21,000 and $32,000 for blood pressure-lowering medications, and more than $103,000 for cholesterol-lowering and anti-clotting drugs. Results also show aspirin costs less than a fifth as much per cardiac event than cholesterol lowering drugs in patients with a 5 percent, five-year coronary risk.
Researchers say aspirin and blood pressure-lowering medicines provide most of the benefits that the more expensive, cholesterol-lowering and anti-clotting drugs do. They say treating a patient with a five-year coronary risk of 7.5 percent with aspirin and low-cost blood pressure-lowering medications is more cost effective than treating a patient who has a 30 percent risk with a cholesterol-lowering drug.
Authors of the study conclude, "A more effective strategy would be to offer most men over 55 and most women over 65 aspirin than to give statins to a few high-risk patients."
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SOURCE: British Medical Journal, 2003;327:1264-1267
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