These common painkillers raise the risk by an average of 19 per cent, although the dangers are greatest among the elderly, say researchers who assessed the safety of the drugs on a group of around 10 million people with an average age of 77.
The risk varied with the NSAID and the dose, say researchers from the University of Milano-Bicocca in Milan, who analysed healthcare databases from the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and the UK.
Using any NSAID for 14 days will increase the risk of heart failure by 19 per cent, but the risk doubled for diclofenac, indomethacin, piroxicam, and two of the COX-2 NSAIDs, etoricoxib and rofecoxib, especially if they were being taken at high doses.
(Source: BMJ, 2016; 354: i4857)
