Causal Effect of Chronic Pain on Mortality Through Opioid Prescriptions: Application of the Front-Door Formula.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Chronic pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide and is strongly associated with the epidemic of opioid overdosing events. However, the causal links between chronic pain, opioid prescriptions, and mortality remain unclear.

Methods

This study included 13,884 US adults aged ≥20 years who provided data on chronic pain in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2004 with linkage to mortality databases through 2015. We employed the generalized form of the front-door formula within the structural causal model framework to investigate the causal effect of chronic pain on all-cause mortality mediated by opioid prescriptions.

Results

We identified a total of 718 participants at 3 years of follow-up and 1260 participants at 5 years as havin

SUBMITTER: Inoue K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9148671 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature