Health outcomes and costs in patients with osteoarthritis and chronic pain treated with opioids in Spain: the OPIOIDS real-world study.

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze health outcomes, resource utilization, and costs in osteoarthritis patients with chronic nociceptive pain who began treatment with an opioid in real-world practice in Spain. Methods: We designed a non-interventional, retrospective, longitudinal study with 36 months of follow-up using electronic medical records (EMRs) from primary care centers, of patients aged 18+ years who began a new treatment with an opioid drug in usual practice for chronic pain due to osteoarthritis. Health/non-health resource utilization and costs, treatment adherence, pain change, cognitive functioning, and dependence for basic activities of daily living (BADL) we…