Prevalence of Nonsteroidal Antiinflammatory Drugs Prescribed for Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

Our systematic review aimed to investigate the proportion of participants with osteoarthritis who were prescribed nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) by their health care provider.

METHODS:

Electronic databases were searched for observational studies reporting NSAID prescribing to participants with diagnosed osteoarthritis of any region. Risk of bias was assessed using a tool designed for observational studies measuring prevalence. Random and fixed-effects meta-analysis was used. Meta-regression investigated study-level factors associated with prescribing. The overall evidence quality was assessed using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation criteria.

RESULTS:

Fifty-one studies were included, published between 1989 and 2022, with 6,494,509 participants. The mean age of participants was 64.7 years (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 62.4, 67.0; n = 34 studies). Most studies were from Europe and Central Asia (n = 23 studies), and North America (n = 12 studies). Most studies were judged to be at low risk of bias (75%). Heterogeneity was eliminated when removing studies with a high risk of bias, to give a pooled estimate of NSAIDs prescribing to participants with osteoarthritis of 43.8% (95% CI 36.8, 51.1; moderate quality of evidence). Meta-regression determined that prescribing was associated with year (decreased prescribing over time; P = 0.05) and geographic region (P = 0.03; higher in Europe and Central Asia and in South Asia than in North America) but not with clinical setting.

CONCLUSION:

Data from over 6.4 million participants with osteoarthritis between 1989 and 2022 indicate that NSAID prescribing has decreased over time and that prescribing differs between geographic locations.

• Authors: Zijing Yang, Stephanie Mathieson, Sarah Kobayashi, Christina Abdel Shaheed, Leandro Alberto Calazans Nogueira, Milena Simic, Gustavo Machado, Andrew J McLachlan
• Journal: Arthritis care & research (Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken)) Vol. 75 Issue 11 Pg. 2345-2358 (11 2023) ISSN: 2151-4658 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 37221152 (Publication Type: Meta-Analysis, Systematic Review, Journal Article)
• Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Arthritis Care & Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American College of Rheumatology.

Chemical References

• Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal

Topics

• Humans
• Middle Aged
• Prevalence
• Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal (therapeutic use)
• Osteoarthritis (diagnosis, drug therapy, epidemiology)
• Europe
• North America