Pain medication management of musculoskeletal conditions at first presentation in primary care: analysis of routinely collected medical record data

Table 1 Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with new consulting episode of musculoskeletal pain in 2006

			Analgesic received
	N	Column %	n	Row %
Total	3236	-	1344	42
Age (years)
15-29	710	22	224	32
30-44	1081	33	448	41
45-59	963	30	428	44
60-74	374	12	181	48
75+	108	3	63	58
Gender
Females	1320	41	551	42
Males	1916	59	793	41
Previous musculoskeletal consultation^a
Yes	413	13	163	39
No	2823	87	1181	42
Previous analgesic prescription^b
Yes	512	16	244	48
No	2724	84	1100	40
Region of Pain
Back	838	26	465	55
Knee	341	11	144	42
Hip	203	6	68	33
Foot and Ankle	223	7	94	42
Arm	314	10	105	33
Shoulder	245	8	129	53
Neck	218	7	93	43
Other/unspecified	854	26	246	29
Co-morbidity^c
Yes	119	4	63	53
No	3117	96	1281	41
Deprivation
Most	1430	44	624	44
Moderate	1263	39	508	40
Least	543	17	212	39
Staff category
GPs	2616	81	1117	43
Other	620	19	227	37
Practice
1	254	8	79	31
2	224	7	78	35
3	219	7	77	35
4	253	8	76	30
5	161	5	59	37
6	283	9	115	41
7	420	13	241	57
8	324	10	143	44
9	288	9	130	45
10	327	10	166	51
11	143	4	57	40
12	340	11	123	36

N = Total number of patients for each category, n = number of patients prescribed analgesic per category, Col. % = N/3236, Row % = n/N for each row.
^amusculoskeletal consultation 12–24 months before their 2006 consultation.
^bprescribed pain medication 12–24 months before their 2006 consultation.
^cdiabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), depression, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, gastro-intestinal, or neoplasm.

ISSN: 1471-2474