Use of prescription medications by years since diagnosis of osteoarthritis and severity of osteoarthritis over the past 12 months
| Osteoarthritis characteristics | Prescription medication | ||||||||
| NSAIDs* | Opioids† | Other medications‡ | Total | ||||||
| Yes (n=84) % | No (n=319) % | Yes (n=28) % | No (n=375) % | Yes (n=34) % | No (n=369) % | Yes (n=128) % | No (n=275) % | ||
| Years since diagnosis | |||||||||
| <10 years | (n=244) | 23.2 | 34.7 | 21.4 | 33.0 | 23.3 | 32.9 | 23.8 | 36.3 |
| ≥10 years | (n=253) | 76.8 | 65.3 | 78.6 | 67.0 | 76.7 | 67.1 | 76.2 | 63.7 |
| P value | 0.048 | 0.206 | 0.280 | 0.015 | |||||
| Severity of osteoarthritis§ | |||||||||
| <5 points | (n=151) | 22.6 | 42.4 | 7.4 | 40.5 | 20.6 | 39.9 | 21.3 | 46.3 |
| ≥5 points | (n=244) | 77.4 | 57.6 | 92.6 | 59.5 | 79.4 | 60.1 | 78.7 | 53.7 |
| P value | <0.001¶ | <0.001¶ | 0.027 | <0.001¶ | |||||
*Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as celebrex, mobic and meloxicam.
†Opioids such as endone, norspan and fentanyl.
‡Steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as cortisone, anticonvulsant medication such as lyrica, and bisphosphonates such as actonel.
§Self-rated severity score out of 10 (1=least severe and 10=most severe).
¶Statistically significant after Bonferroni correction.