Daily aspirin use appears to reduce the risk of COPD exacerbations, as well as having other beneficial effects, according to an observational US study.

There is some evidence that aspirin use may reduce all-cause mortality in COPD, but its association with morbidity has not been defined, says Dr Ashraf Fawzy of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore and colleagues.

“We found that aspirin users with COPD had fewer flare-ups of their disease over three years, reported better quality of life and less shortness of breath compared to a similar group of participants who did not use aspirin,” Dr Fawzy says.

The researchers examined data on nearly 1700 participants in the SPIROMICS study of patients with COPD.