Predictors of Opioid Prescription Among a Sample of Patients with Acute Musculoskeletal Pain at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Saudi Arabia

Figures & data

Table 1 Patients’ Baseline Characteristics

Characteristics	Use of Opioid Analgesic		P-value	Total (n=227)
	No (n=82)	Yes (n=145)
Age, years; mean ± SD	36.35±16.87	41.03±18.95	0.065	39.33±18.32
BMI, mean ± SD	27.83±5.44	28.39±6.59	0.510	28.19±6.19
Number of clinic visits, mean ± SD	1.43±2.59	1.89±3.10	0.246	1.72±2.93
Gender, n(%)
Female	23(28.05)	49(33.79)	0.371	72(31.72)
Male	59(71.95)	96(66.21)		155(68.28)
Pain location, n(%)
Lower extremity	0(0.00)	23(15.86)	<0.0001*	23(10.13)
Shoulder	80(97.56)	58(40.00)	<0.0001*	138(60.79)
Back pain	2(2.44)	64(44.14)	<0.0001*	66(29.07)
Pain severity on activity, mean ± SD
Lower extremity	—	3.57±1.78	0.071	3.56±1.78
Shoulder	3.01±1.23	3.74±1.61		3.32±1.44
Back pain	5.00±0.0	3.78±2.02		3.82±1.99
Overall	3.06±1.25	3.73±1.81	0.0012*	3.48±1.66
Pain severity at rest, mean ± SD
Lower extremity	—	2.217±1.57	0.359	2.22±1.57
Shoulder	2.31±1.24	2.71±1.60		2.48±1.41
Back pain	4.50±0.71	2.79±1.86		2.85±1.86
Overall	2.36±1.27	2.66±1.71	0.1313	2.56±1.57
Duration of pain treatment, mean ± SD	10.44±10.45	19.14±22.19	<0.0001*	15.99±19.25
Number of prescription medications, n(%)
0–2	78(95.12)	120(82.76)	0.0069*	198(87.22)
>2	4(4.88)	25(17.24)		29(12.78)
Comorbidities, n(%)
0–1	79(96.34)	114(78.62)	0.0002*	193(85.02)
>1	3(3.66)	31(21.38)		34(14.98)

Notes: The percentages in each column were calculated based on the total number of patients for each arm of treatment (non-opioid vs opioid analgesics) and total sample size; The P-values were calculated using Chi-square, Fisher’s exact test, and Student’s t-test as appropriate; *P<0.05.

Abbreviation: BMI, body mass index.

Table 2 The Odds of Opioids Prescription Among Patients with Musculoskeletal Pain

Variables	Odds Ratio (OR)	95% Confidence Interval (CI)	P-value
Shoulder pain	0.019	0.004–0.081	<0.0001*
Lower extremity or back pain	53.59	12.34–232.74	<0.0001*
NPRS score on activity	1.317	1.029–1.685	0.0285*
Age	0.995	0.972–1.019	0.6842
Female	0.745	0.325–1.708	0.4871
Number of comorbidities	1.345	0.769–2.354	0.2991
Duration of pain treatment	1.03	1.00–1.061	0.0534
Number of clinic visits	1.064	0.944–1.199	0.3076

Note: *P<0.05.

Figure 1 The type and number of opioid analgesic prescriptions for 145 patients.