Skip to main content

Table 2 Associations between pain sensitivity and different measures of analgesic use (n = 10,486). Cross-sectional analysis

From: Pain sensitivity and analgesic use among 10,486 adults: the Tromsø study

  

Prevalence

Crude

Model A

Model B

  

n

%

HRa

95% CI

HR

95% CI

HR

95% CI

Persistent Rx analgesic useb

No

10,062

96.0

1

Ref

1

Ref

1

Ref

Yes

424

4.0

1.58

1.37–1.83

1.45

1.25–1.68

1.33

1.14–1.55

Self-reported analgesic use

 Any use last four weeks

No use

5,461

53.8

1

Ref

1

Ref

1

Ref

OTC only

3,292

32.4

1.32

1.22–1.42

1.14

1.05–1.23

1.11

1.03–1.21

Rx only

495

4.9

1.47

1.26–1.72

1.28

1.10–1.50

1.20

1.02–1.41

Both OTC and Rx

909

8.9

1.59

1.42–1.79

1.30

1.15–1.46

1.20

1.06–1.36

 Regular use last four weeksc

No use

8,339

79.5

1

Ref

1

Ref

1

Ref

Paracetamol onlyd

593

5.7

1.30

1.13–1.49

1.07

0.93–1.23

1.03

0.90–1.19

NSAIDs only

668

6.4

1.28

1.13–1.46

1.16

1.02–1.33

1.11

0.97–1.27

NSAIDs + paracetamold

524

5.0

1.26

1.08–1.46

1.06

0.91–1.23

0.99

0.85–1.16

Opioids only

109

1.0

1.77

1.34–2.34

1.49

1.12–1.98

1.36

1.02–1.81

Combinations w/opioids

253

2.4

1.60

1.32–1.94

1.42

1.17–1.72

1.29

1.06–1.57

 Last 24 hourse

No

9,502

92.4

1

Ref

1

Ref

1

Ref

Yes

776

7.6

1.67

1.50–1.87

1.48

1.32–1.66

1.40

1.25–1.57

  1. HR hazard ratio, CI confidence interval, OTC non-prescription, Rx prescription, NSAIDs non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
  2. Model A: Adjusted for age, sex and education. Missing in the model including persistent analgesic use: n = 110 (1.05%)
  3. Model B: Same as A but including chronic pain. Missing in the model including persistent analgesic use: n = 123 (1.17%)
  4. aHR > 1 implies increased pain sensitivity, i.e., reduced cold pain tolerance, compared to the reference group
  5. bUse of NSAIDs, paracetamol or opioids for ≥ 90 days and with a proportion-of-days-covered ≥ 40%. In the study period, the persistent treatment episodes consisted on average of 39.3% NSAID, 44.0% opioid and 16.7% paracetamol prescriptions
  6. cOnly the “classical” analgesic groups NSAIDs, paracetamol or opioids are counted here, i.e. adjuvant/atypical analgesics are not included
  7. d“Paracetamol” includes the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical group N02B “Other analgesics and antipyretics”, and consists almost exclusively of paracetamol use but also minor use of phenazone-caffeine or aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) (see [24])
  8. eUse of any analgesics within the 24 h prior to the cold pressor test