Approved research

Association of pain killers with all-cause and cause-specific mortality among patients with musculoskeletal pain

Lay summary

Pain killers (such as NSAIDs and opioids) are widely used in patients with musculoskeletal pain. But whether an association exists between pain killers' usage and mortality is still debatable. Previous studies used old-fashioned methods, which might produce biased results. We will use a new analysis frame and try to give a more convincing conclusion. In additional, UK Biobank currently has the primary care data, which provides us an opportunity to identify the prescription trajectories (including the dosage and the frequency) for the pain killers. Thus, we could explore whether an association exists between prescription patterns of pain killers and mortality, which might guide the scientific usage of the pain killer to reduce the potential harm. In sum, we have three aims: 1. to determine whether an association exists between pain killers' usage and mortality among patients with musculoskeletal pain; 2. to identify prescription trajectory patterns of pain killers among patients with musculoskeletal pain; 3.to explore whether an association exists between prescription patterns of pain killers and mortality among patients with musculoskeletal pain. We plan to finish this project in 15 months.