Aspirin may protect against dementia in T2DM

ANAHEIM, CALIF. – Daily low-dose aspirin reduced the incidence of dementia by more than one-third in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in the randomized JPAD 2 study, Chisa Matsumoto, MD, reported at the American Heart Association scientific sessions.

The benefit was restricted to women with T2DM. During a median 9.7 years of follow-up, the incidence of dementia, as defined by prescription of antidementia drugs or hospitalization for dementia, was 2.7 cases per 1,000 person-years in women randomized to low-dose aspirin and 6 per 1,000 person-years in those assigned to standard care. This translated to a 60% relative risk reduction in a multivariate analysis adjusted for age, hypertension, dyslipidemia, smoking, and hemoglobin A_1c level, according to Dr. Matsumoto of Hyogo (Japan) College of Medicine.

Bruce Jancin/Frontline Medical News

In men with T2DM, there was no significant difference in rates of new-onset dementia between the low-dose aspirin and control groups.

JPAD 2 was a multicenter prospective cohort study of 2,536 Japanese patients with T2DM who previously participated in the open-label randomized Japanese Primary Prevention of Atherosclerosis with Aspirin for Diabetes (JPAD) trial, which ran from 2002 to 2008. Patients’ average age at baseline was 64 years; they had a 7-year duration of diabetes and no history of cardiovascular disease or dementia. When JPAD ended, patients continued on in JPAD 2, with follow-up through July 2015.