Frequent use of prescription NSAIDs among people with knee or hip osteoarthritis despite contraindications to or precautions with NSAIDs

Objective

To describe the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), opioids, and physiotherapy (PT) among persons with newly diagnosed knee or hip osteoarthritis (OA) with and without NSAID contraindications or precautions.

Design

We used population-based register data to identify adults aged ≥35 as of January 1, 2014, residing in Skåne region (Sweden) between 2004 and 2013, without a previous knee or hip OA diagnosis. Among this cohort, we identified people with incident knee or hip OA diagnosis between 2014 and 2018 and the presence of contraindications to or precautions for oral NSAIDs at the time of OA diagnosis. We estimated the risk of 1) regular oral NSAID use, 2) regular opioid use, and 3) PT during the first year after diagnosis among those with vs. without contraindications or precautions using confounder-adjusted logistic regression with standardization.

Results

We identified 35,173 persons with newly diagnosed OA, of whom 3257 and 8351 had ≥1 contraindication to oral NSAIDs and ≥1 precaution, respectively. Overall, 27% of individuals used oral NSAIDs (with or without opioids or PT), 10% used opioids, and 57% attended PT. Among patients with contraindications, 21% used oral NSAIDs compared to 31% without (absolute adjusted difference −0.06 (95% CIs: −0.08, −0.05)), 53% vs 59% used PT (adjusted difference −0.03 (−0.05, −0.01)), while 14% vs. 8% had prescribed dispensed opioids (adjusted difference 0.02 (0.01, 0.03)). Similar results were observed for those with precautions.

Conclusions

We highlight the need for safer treatment options. People with OA and contraindications/precautions to NSAIDs have a higher risk of opioid use, slightly lower risk of PT use, and continue to be prescribed NSAIDs.