Abstract
Background: Although older adults are disproportionately affected by painful musculoskeletal conditions and receive more opioid analgesics than persons in other age groups, insufficient evidence is available regarding opioid harms in this age group. Objective: To examine longitudinal relationships between opioid use and falls, clinical fractures, and changes in physical performance. We hypothesized that opioid use would be associated with greater risks of falling and incident clinical fractures and greater declines in physical performance. Design: We analyzed data from the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study (MrOS), a large prospective longitudinal cohort study. Participants completed baseline visits from 2000 to 2002 and were followed for 9.1 (SD 4.0) years. Participants: MrOS enrolled 5994 community-dwelling men ≥ 65 years of age. The present study included 2902 participants with back, hip, or knee pain most or all of the time at baseline. Main Measures: The exposure of interest was opioid use, defined at each visit as participant-reported daily or near-daily use of any opioid-containing analgesic. Among patients, 309 (13.4 %) reported opioid use at one or more visits. Participants were queried every 4 months about falls and fractures. Physical performance scores were derived from tests of grip strength, chair stands, gait speed, and dynamic balance. Key Results: In the main analysis, the adjusted risk of falling did not differ significantly between opioid use and non-use groups (RR 1.10, 95 % CI 0.99, 1.24). Similarly, adjusted rates of incident clinical fracture did not differ between groups (HR 1.13, 95 % CI 0.94, 1.36). Physical performance was worse at baseline for the opioid use group, but annualized change in physical performance scores did not differ between groups (−0.022, 95 % CI −0.138, 0.093). Conclusions: Additional research is needed to determine whether opioid use is a marker of risk or a cause of falls, fractures, and progressive impairment among older adults with persistent pain.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 463-469 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of general internal medicine |
Volume | 31 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 1 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This material is based on work supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute on Aging (NIA #R03 AG042980) and with resources and facilities of the Minneapolis VA Health Care System. The Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) Study is supported by NIH funding from the following institutes: the NIA, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), and the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research under the following grant numbers: U01 AG027810, U01 AG042124, U01 AG042139, U01 AG042140, U01 AG042143, U01 AG042145, U01 AG042168, U01 AR066160, and UL1 TR000128. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States government.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, Society of General Internal Medicine.
Keywords
- aging
- chronic pain
- falls
- fractures
- opioid analgesics