In its landmark study ranking the value of clinical preventive services, Partnership for Prevention found that counseling about regular aspirin use is one of the highest value clinical preventive services clinicians can provide. If all high-risk individuals for whom aspirin use is recommended were actually taking aspirin regularly, 200,000 lives would be saved each year.

Not only would increased use of aspirin have significant public health benefits, but widespread counseling about aspirin use would actually reduce medical costs. Counseling about aspirin use would result in net medical cost savings of $70 per person advised.

Yet less than half of all adults for whom aspirin use is recommended take aspirin on a regular basis. Physician counseling significantly influences patients’ decisions to use aspirin, yet not enough physicians routinely counsel their patients about aspirin use. With a grant from Bayer HealthCare, Partnership for Prevention seeks to increase the number of Americans who are using aspirin to reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke.

For more information about this important initiative, contact or at Partnership for Prevention.