Can aspirin used to reduce heart disease problems help to prevent COVID-19 infection?

This study compared the rate and duration of COVID-19 infection in patients taking aspirin compared to those not taking this drug. They found that patients taking aspirin were less likely to get COVID-19 infection and had a lower duration of disease compared to those not taking aspirin.

Aspirin is often given to patients with heart disease to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. It reduces the ability of the blood to form clots. Aspirin also affects the immune system and may reduce the risk of viral infections. 

Patients with heart disease are more likely to develop severe COVID-19 symptoms and complications. It is not clear whether long-standing aspirin treatment reduces the risk of COVID-19 infection. 

Patients were identified from a nationwide database in Israel. All patients from this database who were tested for COVID-19 over a 5-month period in 2020 were included. Patient records were reviewed to see how many patients were taking aspirin at the time of diagnosis and how their disease differed from those not taking aspirin.

Patients taking aspirin were 29% less likely to have a positive COVID-19 test than those not taking aspirin. Aspirin users were an average of 11 years older than non-users. Aspirin users were also more likely to suffer from high blood pressure, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) than non-users. The aspirin group, therefore, had a number of risk factors that put them at risk of getting severe COVID-19 symptoms. 

However, the aspirin group recovered from the disease more quickly than the non-aspirin group, by an average of 2 days. This was measured as time from the first positive test to the second negative test. This was 19.8 days in the aspirin group and 21.9 days in the non-aspirin group.

This study showed that patients taking aspirin to prevent heart complications were less likely to get COVID-19 infection and had a shorter duration of disease than non-users.

This study excluded patients with previous heart disease or stroke, more studies are needed to see if these findings also apply to these patients.  This study also only involved patients in Israel, more studies are needed to see if the findings apply to other ethnicities.