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. 2021 Jul 28:14:2313-2326.
doi: 10.2147/JPR.S310368. eCollection 2021.

Moderate to Severe Osteoarthritis Pain and Its Impact on Patients in the United States: A National Survey

Patricia Schepman  1 , Sheena Thakkar  1 , Rebecca Robinson  2 , Deepa Malhotra  1 , Birol Emir  1 , Craig Beck  1
Affiliations

Moderate to Severe Osteoarthritis Pain and Its Impact on Patients in the United States: A National Survey

Patricia Schepman et al. J Pain Res. .

Abstract

Purpose: Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common causes of chronic pain and a leading cause of disability in the US. The objective of this study was to examine the clinical and economic burden of OA by pain severity.

Patients and methods: We used nationally representative survey data. Adults ≥18 years with self-reported physician-diagnosed OA and experiencing OA pain were included in the study. OA pain severity was measured using the Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire Visual Analog Scale (SF-MPQ-VAS). Data were collected for demographics, clinical characteristics, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), productivity, OA treatment, adherence to pain medication, and healthcare resource utilization. Univariate analysis was performed to examine differences between respondents with moderate-to-severe OA pain vs those with mild OA pain.

Results: Higher proportions of respondents with moderate-to-severe OA pain (n=3798) compared with mild OA pain (n=2038) were female (69.4% vs 57.3%), <65 years of age (54.8% vs 43.4%), and not employed (70.6% vs 64.5%). Respondents with moderate-to-severe OA pain experienced OA pain daily (80.8% vs 48.8%), were obese (53.0% vs 40.5%), had more comorbidities (sleep disturbance, insomnia, depression, and anxiety), and reported significantly poorer health status and HRQoL, and greater productivity and activity impairment (all P<0.05). Moderate-to-severe OA pain respondents were prescribed significantly more pain medications than mild OA pain respondents (41.0% vs 17.0%) and had higher adherence (75.9% vs 64.1%) yet were less satisfied with their pain medications (all P<0.001). Outpatient and emergency room visits, and hospitalizations in the 6 months prior to the survey were significantly higher in moderate-to-severe OA pain respondents vs those with mild OA pain (all P<0.05).

Conclusion: Patient and clinical burden was significantly greater in moderate-to-severe OA pain respondents vs mild OA pain respondents and may inform decision-making for appropriate resource allocation and effective management strategies that target specific subgroups.

Keywords: HCRU; HRQoL; health-related quality of life; healthcare resource utilization; medication adherence; moderate-to-severe pain; osteoarthritis; pain severity; treatment satisfaction.

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Conflict of interest statement

The findings of this manuscript have been presented at the ISPOR 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting; May 18–20, 2020 and at PAINWeek 2020 Virtual Meeting; September 11–13, 2020. The following authors are employees of Pfizer with stock and/or stock options: PS, ST, CB, DM, and BE. RR is an employee and stockholder of Eli Lilly and Company. AS was financially compensated for providing editorial support in the drafting of this manuscript. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study population attrition.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Health-related quality of life. (A) General health and well-being assessed on SF-36v2 domains. (B) Mental Component Summary (MCS) and Physical Component Summary (PCS) scores of the SF-36v2. (C) SF-6D and EQ-5D-5L health index scores.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Impaired work and productivity assessed on the Work Productivity and Impairment Questionnaire for General Health (WPAI-GH)a.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Current use of over-the-counter pain medications reported by OA patientsa.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Satisfaction with currently prescribed OA medicationa.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Respondent-reported healthcare resource utilization in the past 6 months.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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