Factors associated with a continuous regular analgesic use-a population-based study of more than 45 000 Danish women and men 18-45 years of age

Purpose Widespread use of and serious adverse effects associated with use of analgesics accentuates the need to consider factors related to analgesic use. The objective of this study was to describe continuous regular analgesics use and examine factors associated with a continuous regular analgesic use. Methods The study was based on data from two surveys and included a random sample of women and men aged 18-45 years from the general Danish population. Information on analgesics use, self-rated health, demographic and lifestyle factors was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 28 000 women and 33 000 men were invited to participate and 22 199 women (response-rate 81.4%) and 23 080 men (response-rate 71.0%), respectively, were included in the study. Data were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression. Results We found that 27% of the women and 18% of the men reported a regular monthly use of at least seven analgesic tablets during the last year (continuous regular analgesics use). Besides poor self-rated health we found in both sexes that increasing age, poor self-rated fitness, and smoking were related to a continuous regular analgesics use. Nulliparity, low level of education, overweight/obesity, binge drinking, and abstinence were associated with a continuous regular analgesics use for women, while underweight and marital/cohabiting status were associated with a continuous regular analgesics use only for men. Conclusions Regular monthly analgesic use during the last year was generally prevalent. Besides self-rated health, several socio-demographic and lifestyle factors were associated with a continuous regular analgesic use, although with some gender differences. Copyright (c) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.