Table 3.
Negative attitude towards long-term use of opioids among physicians in postgraduate year training programme (N = 169).
| Postgraduate year training |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agreement with negative statement | Year 2 n = 48 |
Year 1 n = 51 |
Year 0 n = 70 |
P-valuea |
| 1. Adults should endure pain as much as possible, n = 20 (11.8) | 9 (18.8) | 5 (9.8) | 6 (8.6) | 0.211 |
| 2. Adults should not frequently request opioids, n = 63 (37.3) | 23 (47.9) | 13 (25.5) | 27 (38.6) | 0.067 |
| 3. Opioids are not good for the human body, n = 70 (41.4) | 23 (47.9) | 21 (41.2) | 26 (37.1) | 0.506 |
| 4. Opioids are not good for mental health, n = 63 (37.3) | 22 (45.8) | 15 (29.4) | 26 (37.1) | 0.240 |
| 5. Opioids can have many side effects, n = 132 (78.1) | 40 (83.3) | 37 (72.5) | 55 (78.6) | 0.428 |
| 6. Relieving the side effects of opioids is not easy, n = 64 (37.9) | 24 (50.0) | 23 (45.1) | 17 (24.3) | 0.008 |
| 7. Requiring more opioid analgesics compared to other patients is indicative of addiction onset, n = 82 (48.5) | 28 (58.3) | 21 (41.2) | 33 (47.1) | 0.223 |
| 8. Requiring additional opioid analgesics is indicative of a patient becoming addicted, n = 80 (47.3) | 26 (54.2) | 21 (41.2) | 33 (47.1) | 0.433 |
| 9. Patients with a history of substance abuse should not be prescribed opioids for pain because they are at a high risk of addiction, n = 51 (30.2) | 17 (35.4) | 16 (31.4) | 18 (25.7) | 0.516 |
| 10. Patients with chronic non-cancer pain require more opioids than those with acute pain do, n = 101 (59.8) | 28 (58.3) | 36 (70.6) | 37 (52.9) | 0.141 |
| Negative attitude responses, %, 43.0 ± 27.0 | 50.0 ± 31.8 | 40.8 ± 24.1 | 39.7 ± 24.9 | 0.274b |
Data are presented as number (%) or mean ± standard deviation of agreement responses.
aP-values estimated using the chi-squared test.
bP-values estimated using Kruskal–Wallis test.