ArticleBMC musculoskeletal disorders2026
One in six admitted patients with low back pain received high daily opioid dosage in Australian hospitals: a cross-sectional study.
Article in BMC musculoskeletal disorders, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimTo examine the amount of opioids administered to patients with low back pain in the hospital setting and to determine factors associated with high daily dosage.
methodsThis cross-sectional study analysed medical records of three public hospitals in Sydney, NSW, Australia. We included adult patients who presented to the emergency department (ED) from January 2016 to October 2021 with non-specific low back pain or radiculopathy. The opioid dose administered in the ED and the daily dosage during hospital stay (if admitted) were estimated using opioid orders measured by milligram of morphine equivalents (MME). High-dose opioid therapy was defined as ≥ 50 MME/day during hospital stay.
resultsOf the 9,345 eligible ED encounters, we included 12,850 opioid orders placed for 5,132 patients (54.9%). Among the 7,633 patients discharged home from ED, 3,519 patients (46.1%) were administered opioids in the ED at an average dose of 13.9 MME (SD = 35.6). 94.2% of patients who were admitted to hospitals (1,613 out of 1,712) received a mean dosage of 34.7 MME/day (SD = 68.3), including 154 patients (9.0%) received 50-90 MME/day and 117 (6.8%) received ≥ 90 MME/day. High-dose opioid therapy was associated with younger age (aOR = 0.80, 95% CI 0.74-0.85), male gender (aOR = 1.38, 95% CI 1.05-1.81), disadvantaged socio-economic status (aOR = 1.50, 95% CI 1.07-2.10), and serious pathology diagnosed during hospital admission (aOR = 1.79, 95% CI 1.36-2.37).
conclusionAlmost one in six admitted patients with low back pain receive a high daily opioid dosage in Australian hospitals. Strategies implementing evidence-based non-opioid alternatives to reduce high-dose opioid therapy are warranted.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.