Aspirin treatment reduces the risk for incident diabetes in older adults, according to a study to be presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, held from Oct. 2 to 6 in Hamburg, Germany.
Sophia Zoungas, Ph.D., from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues investigated the treatment effect of low-dose aspirin on incident diabetes and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels among adults aged 65 years. and older. The participants (16,209 adults) were randomly assigned (1:1) to 100 mg daily enteric-coated aspirin or placebo.
The researchers found that during a median follow-up of 4.7 years, incident diabetes cases were identified in 459 participants in the aspirin group and 536 in the placebo group. The aspirin group had a lower risk for incident diabetes (hazard ratio, 0.85; P = 0.01) and a slower rate of increase in FPG (difference in annual FPG change, −0.006 mmol/L; P = 0.004).
“Given the increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes among older adults, the potential for anti-inflammatory agents like aspirin to prevent type 2 diabetes or improve glucose levels needs further study,” the authors write.
