Aspirin Lowers COVID-19 Hospitalized Patient Mortality Rate by 15%

Greatest Effect on Those Aged 61 and Over with Two or More Chronic Diseases... Last Year's Oxford University Study Results Overturned

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[Asia Economy Senior Reporter Jinsoo Lee] New research has found that administering aspirin, a pain reliever, anti-inflammatory, and fever reducer, to hospitalized COVID-19 patients increased survival rates.

A research team from George Washington University in the United States reported on the 24th (local time) in a paper published on the medical paper sharing site 'JAMA Network Open' that administering aspirin for several days after hospitalization to COVID-19 patients with relatively mild symptoms showed beneficial effects.

This study involved 112,269 COVID-19 patients aged from 18 to well over 80 years old across 64 medical institutions in the United States from January 2020 to September last year.

The study found that patients who received aspirin had a 15% lower risk of dying from COVID-19 within 28 days after hospitalization compared to the control group.

The researchers administered 81 mg of aspirin once daily for five days after hospitalization to 15,272 patients in their early 60s. This is a low dose. The remaining patients received standard treatment services.

More than half of the aspirin group suffered from hypertension (76% of all patients), heart disease (55%), and diabetes (51%). About half of these patients were already taking aspirin before being hospitalized for COVID-19.

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About 22% of patients aged 81 and older who received aspirin died within 28 days after hospitalization, which was lower than the 26% in the control group. Among patients aged 61 to 80, 13% of the aspirin group and 16% of the control group died. The incidence of thrombosis was 1% in the aspirin group and 1.4% in the control group. This means the risk of thrombosis, one of the fatal complications of COVID-19, was 29% lower in the aspirin group.

Overall, 10.2% of the aspirin group died within 28 days after hospitalization, compared to 11.8% in the control group. Thus, the risk of dying from COVID-19 within 28 days after hospitalization was 15% lower in patients who received aspirin than in the control group.

The patient group that benefited most from aspirin administration were those aged 61 and older with two or more chronic diseases.

Aspirin, which anyone can purchase cheaply and easily, reduces pain, swelling, and elevated body temperature.

Several papers have reported that aspirin is effective in treating COVID-19. However, on June 8 last year, researchers from the University of Oxford in the UK announced that aspirin did not improve survival rates in severe COVID-19 patients.

Jonathan Cho, Associate Professor of Critical Care Medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine, who led this study, commented, "Since we have not established a definitive causal relationship, more in-depth research is needed."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.