Aspirin Can Reduce Women’s Risk of Heart Attacks, Study Concludes

A major study provides the first evidence that healthy women who take aspirin regularly can significantly reduce their risk of heart attacks, just as men do.

The work, based on a six-year follow-up of women nurses, showed that those who took between one and six aspirin tablets a week reduced their heart attack risk by about 30%.

Evidence has been mounting in recent years that regular aspirin use significantly reduces the chance of heart attacks, the nation’s biggest killer. But until now, most of the evidence has come from studies on men, and experts have been unsure whether aspirin works for women, too.

The new study, conducted at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, was presented Friday in Orlando, Fla., at an epidemiology conference sponsored by the American Heart Assn.

Dr. Charles Hennekens, senior author of the study, said more research will be necessary to learn just how much women may benefit from aspirin use.

“In the meantime,” he said, “for a physician wondering whether to generalize the aspirin data to women, this provides the possibility of a benefit that is comparable to that in men.”

Three years ago, another study directed by Hennekens provided the first firm evidence that aspirin prevents first heart attacks in outwardly healthy men.