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. 2024 Oct 2;25(1):773.
doi: 10.1186/s12891-024-07854-8.

Patterns of pain medication usage and self-reported pain in older Irish adults with osteoarthritis: A latent class analysis of data from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing

H P French  1 , J Cunningham  2 , K Bennett  3 , C A Cadogan  4 , B Clyne  5 , F Doyle  6 , F Moriarty  7   8 , J M Ryan  2 , S M Smith  9 , V Lima Passos  7
Affiliations

Patterns of pain medication usage and self-reported pain in older Irish adults with osteoarthritis: A latent class analysis of data from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing

H P French et al. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. .

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to identify and describe links between pain medication use and self-reported pain among people aged ≥ 50 years with osteoarthritis (OA) in an Irish population, and to examine the relationships between pain, medication usage and socioeconomic and clinical characteristics.

Methods: Secondary data analysis of wave 1 cross-sectional data from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) was undertaken of 1042 people with self-reported doctor-diagnosed OA. We examined use of medications typically included in OA clinical guidelines, including non-opioid analgesics (e.g. paracetamol), topical and oral non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), opioids and nutraceuticals. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used to identify underlying clinical subgroups based on medication usage patterns, and self-reported pain severity. Multinomial logistic regression was used to explore sociodemographic and clinical characteristic links to latent class membership.

Results: A total of 358 (34.4%) of the 1042 people in this analysis were taking pain medications including oral NSAIDs (17.5%), analgesics (11.4%) and opioids (8.7%). Nutraceutical (glucosamine/chondroitin) use was reported by 8.6% and topical NSAID use reported by 1.4%. Three latent classes were identified: (1) Low medication use/no pain (n = 382, 37%), (2) low medication use/moderate pain (n = 523, 50%) and (3) moderate medication use/high pain (n = 137, 13%). Poorer self-rated health and greater sleep disturbance were associated with classes 2 and 3; depressive symptoms and female gender were associated with class 2, and retirement associated with class 3.

Conclusions: Whilst pain medication use varied with pain severity, different medication types reported broadly aligned with OA guidelines. The two subgroups exhibiting higher pain levels demonstrated poorer self-rated health and greater sleep disturbance.

Keywords: Clinical guidelines; Latent class analysis; Medications; Osteoarthritis; Pain.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Item Probability Plot (IPP) illustrating the three extracted medication/pain profiles (with estimated sizes) identified from participants’ answers to medication use and pain questions. The y-axis shows the probability of OA individuals using the indicated medications and self-reporting the ‘pain’ categories for each latent class
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Forest Plot of Multinomial Regression models comparing socio-demographic and clinical characteristics between Class 1 and Class 2, and Class 1 and Class 3
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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