Inadequate pain relief among patients with primary knee osteoarthritis

Pedro A Laires; Jorge Laíns; Luís C Miranda; Rui Cernadas; Srini Rajagopalan; Stephanie D Taylor; José C Silva

doi:10.1016/j.rbr.2016.09.003

Inadequate pain relief among patients with primary knee osteoarthritis

Rev Bras Reumatol. 2016 Oct 28:S0482-5004(16)30093-6. doi: 10.1016/j.rbr.2016.09.003. Online ahead of print.

[Article in English, Portuguese]

Authors

Pedro A Laires¹, Jorge Laíns², Luís C Miranda³, Rui Cernadas⁴, Srini Rajagopalan⁵, Stephanie D Taylor⁶, José C Silva⁷

Affiliations

¹ Merck, Sharp & Dohme, Oeiras, Portugal. Electronic address: pedro.laires@merck.com.
² Centro de Medicina de Reabilitação da Região Centro, Tocha, Portugal.
³ Instituto Português de Reumatologia, Lisboa, Portugal.
⁴ Administração de Saúde da Região Norte (ARS Norte), Porto, Portugal; Centro de Saúde da Aguda, Arcozelo, Portugal.
⁵ Med Data Analytics, Inc., East Brunswick, Estados Unidos.
⁶ Merck & Co. Inc., Kenilworth, Estados Unidos.
⁷ Hospital Garcia de Orta, Almada, Portugal.

PMID: 27889117
DOI: 10.1016/j.rbr.2016.09.003

Abstract

Background: Despite the widespread treatments for Osteoarthritis (OA), data on treatment patterns, adequacy of pain relief, and quality of life are limited. The prospective multinational Survey of Osteoarthritis Real World Therapies (SORT) was designed to investigate these aspects.

Objectives: To analyze the characteristics and the patient reported outcomes of the Portuguese dataset of SORT at the start of observation.

Methods: Patients ≥ 50 years with primary knee OA who were receiving oral or topical analgesics were eligible. Patients were enrolled from seven healthcare centers in Portugal between January and December 2011. Pain and function were evaluated using the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and WOMAC. Quality of life was assessed using the 12-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12). Inadequate Pain Relief (IPR) was defined as a score>4/10 on item 5 of the BPI.

Results: Overall, 197 patients were analyzed. The median age was 67.0 years and 78.2% were female. Mean duration of knee OA was 6.2 years. IPR was reported by 51.3% of patients. Female gender (adjusted odds ratio - OR 2.15 [95%CI 1.1, 4.5]), diabetes (OR 3.1 [95%CI 1.3, 7.7]) and depression (OR 2.24 [95%CI 1.2, 4.3]) were associated with higher risk of IPR. Patients with IPR reported worst outcomes in all dimensions of WOMAC (p<0.001) and in all eight domains and summary components of SF-12 (p<0.001).

Conclusions: Our findings indicate that improvements are needed in the management of pain in knee OA in order to achieve better outcomes in terms of pain relief, function and quality of life.

Keywords: Alívio inadequado da dor; Desfechos relatados pelo paciente; Disability; Inadequate pain relief; Incapacidade; Knee osteoarthritis; Osteoartrite de joelho; Patient reported outcomes; Qualidade de vida; Quality of life.