Table 1.

Characteristics of strong opioid users included during study period

	Total opioid users	Non-cancer group	Cancer group
Number of patients	178,692 (100%)	149,896 (83.9%)	28,796 (16.1%)
Gender
Male	71,638 (40.1%)	56,392 (37.6%)	15,246 (52.9%)
Female	107,054 (59.9)	93,504 (62.4)	13,550 (47.1%)
Age (years)
Mean ± SD (range)	67.1 ± 17.0 (18–107)	66.6 ± 17.6 (18–107)	69.7 ± 12.9 (18–106)
Mode	77	80	74
Rank of age
≤40	14,928 (8.4%)	14,318 (9.6%)	610 (2.1%)
41–50	17,625 (9.9%)	15,937 (10.6%)	1,688 (5.9%)
51–65	42,521 (23.8%)	34,746 (23.2%)	7,775 (27.0%)
66–80	60,091 (33.6%)	47,464 (31.7%)	12,627 (43.9%)
>80	43,527 (24.4%)	37,431 (25.0%)	6,096 (21.2%)

SD, standard deviation.