BMJ  2005;330 (18 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7505.0-g

Editor's choice

Make up your own minds

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Hands up if you are over 50 and take an aspirin a day, or if you advise your older patients and friends to do this. It may seem a harmless and effective precaution against potentially devastating vascular events. But do the benefits outweigh the risks? Should it be offered as primary prevention to everyone over 50, or just to those at increased risk?

This week, two commentators explore the evidence for and against aspirin for everyone over 50 (pp 1440, 1442). In favour of such a policy, Peter Elwood and colleagues argue that about 80% of men and 50% of women in the United Kingdom aged 50 or older are already deemed to be at increased risk—defined as being at a 3% or greater risk of having a vascular event (myocardial infarction or stroke) in the next five years. Current practice is to target these people for primary . . . [Full text of this article]

Fiona Godlee, editor

(fgodlee@bmj.com)


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