Musculoskeletal Disorders, Pain Medication, and in-Hospital Mortality among Patients with COVID-19 in South Korea: A Population-Based Cohort Study

Tak-Kyu Oh, In-Ae Song, Joon Lee, Woosik Eom and Young-Tae Jeon
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Tak-Kyu Oh: Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam 13620, Korea
In-Ae Song: Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam 13620, Korea
Joon Lee: Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, National Cancer Center, Goyang 10408, Korea
Woosik Eom: Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, National Cancer Center, Goyang 10408, Korea
Young-Tae Jeon: Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam 13620, Korea

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 13, 1-10

Abstract: We aimed to investigate whether comorbid musculoskeletal disorders (MSD)s and pain medication use was associated with in-hospital mortality among patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Adult patients (?20 years old) with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis until 5 June 2020 were included in this study, based on the National Health Insurance COVID-19 database in South Korea. MSDs included osteoarthritis, neck pain, lower back pain, rheumatoid arthritis, and others, while pain medication included paracetamol, gabapentin, pregabalin, glucocorticoid, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), opioids (strong and weak opioids), and benzodiazepine. Primary endpoint was in-hospital mortality. A total of 7713 patients with COVID-19 were included, and in-hospital mortality was observed in 248 (3.2%) patients. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, no MSDs ( p > 0.05) were significantly associated with in-hospital mortality. However, in-hospital mortality was 12.73 times higher in users of strong opioids (odds ratio: 12.73, 95% confidence interval: 2.44–16.64; p = 0.002), while use of paracetamol ( p = 0.973), gabapentin or pregabalin ( p = 0.424), glucocorticoid ( p = 0.673), NSAIDs ( p = 0.979), weak opioids ( p = 0.876), and benzodiazepine ( p = 0.324) was not associated with in-hospital mortality. In South Korea, underlying MSDs were not associated with increased in-hospital mortality among patients with COVID-19. However, use of strong opioids was significantly associated with increased in-hospital mortality among the patients.

Keywords: analgesics; opioid; musculoskeletal diseases; pain; population (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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