Aspirin almost doubles the risk for serious upper gastrointestinal bleeding in older people and can further increase with age, smoking, chronic kidney disease and NSAIDs, according to data from Digestive Disease Week.

“This study confirms that among older adults, low dose aspirin is associated with an increased risk of gastrointestinal bleeding with the risk highest among those who smoke and have high blood pressure or kidney disease,” Andrew T. Chan, MD, chief, clinical and translational epidemiology unit director of cancer epidemiology at Massachusetts General Cancer Center, told Healio Gastroenterology.