Background: Opioid analgesic use and associated adverse events have increased over the last 15 years, including in Australia. Whether this is associated with increased chronic pain prevalence in the Australian population is unknown. This study aimed to estimate (1) the prevalence of chronic pain and analgesia use in the Australian population by age and sex; (2) the severity of pain in the population with chronic pain by sex; and (3) the distribution of recent pain severity in those using analgesia by age and sex.

Methods: This study used cross-sectional, nationally representative data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2011 to 2012 National Health Survey. A total of n = 20 426 participants were included with an overall response rate of 84.8%. Weighting procedures were applied to obtain population estimates, confidence intervals, and when testing for statistical significance.

Results: The prevalence of chronic and reoccurring pain (over a 6-month period) was 15.4% (2.75 million) for Australians aged ≥ 15 years. Prevalence increased with age for both sexes. Significantly more females reported moderate-to-very severe pain overall (P < 0.001), and within most age groups. Recent use of opioid analgesia was reported by 12.0% of males and 13.4% of females with chronic pain.

Conclusion: Chronic pain and opioid analgesic use are important public health issues in Australia. Study estimates of chronic pain and recent pain were no greater than earlier estimates. The acknowledged increase of opioid use in the literature thus appears consistent with changing treatment and/or prescribing patterns over time. Sex differences regarding pain prevalence, severity, and opioid use were apparent.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	analgesia, chronic pain, opioid, pain severity, pharmacoepidemiology
Research Division:	Medical and Health Sciences
Research Group:	Public Health and Health Services
Research Field:	Epidemiology
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Public Health (excl. Specific Population Health)
Objective Field:	Public Health (excl. Specific Population Health) not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Miller, A (Ms April Miller)
UTAS Author:	Sanderson, K (Associate Professor Kristy Sanderson)
UTAS Author:	Bruno, R (Associate Professor Raimondo Bruno)
UTAS Author:	Breslin, M (Dr Monique Breslin)
UTAS Author:	Neil, AL (Dr Amanda Neil)
ID Code:	121134
Year Published:	2017
Web of Science® Times Cited:	10
Deposited By:	Menzies Institute for Medical Research
Deposited On:	2017-09-12
Last Modified:	2018-06-21
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