Why carry out this study?

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic joint disease that represents a major global public health problem; pain is the main symptom of OA and the disease characteristic that most often drives patients to seek medical attention.

The objective of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate the burden of pain associated with knee, hip, or knee and hip OA from the perspective of adult patients in the USA and selected countries in the European Union (EU).

What was learned from the study?

Of 2170 patients with OA, those with moderate/severe pain reported significant burdens that affected multiple aspects of their lives.

The burdens were higher among patients with moderate/severe pain versus no/mild pain and among patients with current opioid use versus patients without current opioid use, regardless of pain intensity.

These results indicate that the multidimensional impact of OA pain is worsened by increasing pain intensity and may not be adequately addressed by opioid therapy, underscoring the need for alternative therapeutic agents for the management of knee/hip OA pain.