Nearly Half of Americans Unaware of the Risk of Daily Aspirin Use, Survey Finds

For decades, it was recommended that older adults take a daily aspirin. However, those guidelines were changed in 2019.

Boxes of bottles with 81-milligram aspirin tablets on a store shelf in Miami on April 12, 2016. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

A new survey found that about half of U.S. adults are not aware that the decades-old consensus about taking one low-dose aspirin per day has changed.

For years, health officials and medical groups recommended that older Americans take one aspirin, a blood thinner, daily to stave off cardiovascular disease or stroke. Then, in 2019, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology announced new guidelines about low-dose aspirin usage, reversing the prior guidelines and noting that taking one aspirin per day can lead to increased risks of gastrointestinal bleeding.