Baseline characteristics | Accepted (n=166) | Refused (n=126) | Effect size |
Median (IQR) age | 47.0 (21.0) | 57.8 (21.0) | 0.28* |
Female (%) | 49.4 | 50.8 | 0.01† |
Median (IQR) pain intensity (0–10 scale) at triage | 8 (3) | 7 (4) | 0.23* |
Type of pain conditions (%) | |||
Back and neck pain | 18.9 | 12.9 | 0.15† |
Other musculoskeletal | 17.1 | 23.4 | |
Fracture | 27.4 | 29.0 | |
Renal colic | 18.3 | 15.3 | |
Abdominal pain | 4.9 | 7.3 | |
Other | 13.4 | 12.1 | |
Treated with opioids within the ED visit (%) | 53.1 | 52.3 | 0.01† |
NSAIDs prescription at ED discharge (%) | 46.4 | 35.5 | 0.11† |
Opioid prescription type at discharge (%) | |||
Morphine | 50.9 | 58.2 | 0.15† |
Oxycodone | 16.4 | 6.6 | |
Hydromorphone | 32.7 | 35.2 | |
Median (IQR) number of opioid tablets prescribed | 15 (10) | 15 (10) | 0.10* |
Median (IQR) ED stay (hours) | 6.0 (4.8) | 5.3 (4.5) | 0.05* |
Median (IQR) pain intensity (0–10 scale) at ED discharge | 5 (4) | 6 (3) | 0.04* |
*Effect size from Mann-Whitney U test.
†Effect size from χ2 test; small, medium and large effect sizes for χ2 and Mann-Whitney U tests are <0.3, ≥0.3 and <0.5, ≥0.5, respectively.
ED, emergency department; NSAIDs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.