The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) provides guidance for doctors in the UK. In December 2015 it released updated guidelines about the treatment of people with type 2 diabetes (the commonest form of diabetes).
This guideline recommended that people with diabetes, who are not already known to have heart or circulatory problems, should not be offered aspirin to reduce their risks of suffering a heart attack or stroke (unless they have another reason to take aspirin).
This recommendation from NICE will not affect the ASCEND study. We agree with this latest guidance since it is not known whether the benefits of aspirin in helping to prevent heart attacks and strokes outweigh the increased risk of bleeding for people with diabetes who do not have heart or circulatory problems. This is exactly what the ASCEND study aims to find out and since ASCEND started there have been no new results which have answered this question.