• Tuuli Elina Lehti, M-O Rinkinen, U Aalto, H M Roitto, M Knuutila, H Öhman, H Kautiainen, H Karppinen, R Tilvis, T Strandberg, and K H Pitkälä.
• Primary Health Care Unit, Helsinki University Hospital, Ilkantie 10 B 22, 00400, Helsinki, Finland. tuuli.lehti@helsinki.fi.
• Drugs Aging. 2021 Oct 1; 38 (10): 931-937.

BackgroundPain is undertreated in older populations. At the same time, increased use of opioids is of concern in the Western world.AimsWe sought to analyze temporal trends in musculoskeletal pain and prescribed analgesic treatment among community-dwelling people aged 75-95 years using cross-sectional cohort data spanning 20 years.MethodsThe Helsinki Aging Study recruited random samples of people aged 75, 80, 85, 90, and 95 years in 1999, 2009, and 2019. In total, 5707 community-dwelling persons participated in the study. The participants reported their medical diagnoses, regular prescription medications, and the presence of back pain or joint pain within the last 2 weeks (never, sometimes, or daily). We compared analgesic use among participants reporting and not reporting musculoskeletal pain in 1999, 2009, and 2019.ResultsOf the participants, 57-61% reported intermittent or daily musculoskeletal pain. The percentage receiving a prescribed daily analgesic increased from 9% in 1999 to 16% in 2019. The use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) decreased from 1999 to 2019, while the use of paracetamol increased from 2 to 11%. Opioids were taken by 2% in 1999 and 3% in 2019. Of those reporting daily musculoskeletal pain, 20%, 35%, and 32% received regular pain medication in 1999, 2009, and 2019, respectively.ConclusionsPain remains undertreated in the community-dwelling older population, although the use of regular prescribed analgesics increased between 1999 and 2019. The use of NSAIDs has decreased, while the use of paracetamol has increased. Daily opioid use has remained modest.© 2021. The Author(s).

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