Daily Dose: US Adults Don't Discuss OTC Pain Relievers with Clinicians Despite Hypertension Risk

Patient Care brings primary care clinicians a lot of medical news every day—it’s easy to miss an important study. The Daily Dose provides a concise summary of one of the website's leading stories you may not have seen.

Last week, we reported on findings from an online omnibus study conducted by the research firm Big Village on behalf of the American Heart Association that described the use of over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers among US adults.

The study

In total, 3045 US adults aged ≥18 years were surveyed from July 7-15, 2023. The poll was implemented 3-times a week and completed interviews were weighted by 5 variables: age, sex, geographic region, race, and education.

Findings

Among the cohort, results showed that almost 50% of participants reported taking pain medication once a week or more, however, 61% had not discussed the effects some OTC pain relivers may have on BP with their clinician.

Of participants who were diagnosed with HTN, White and Asian adults (40%) were less likely than Black (54.2%) adults and Hispanic (54.1%) adults to have ever discussed the effect some pain relievers have on BP with a health care professional.

Persons born between 1965 and 1980 (Gen X) were significantly more likely than other generations to take OTC pain relievers several times a day, yet approximately 41% said they would initially ask a health care professional for alternative pain relief if they knew certain OTC pain medications could increase BP.

Persons born between 1997 and 2012 (Gen Z) were less likely (30.5%) than any other generation to initially ask a health care professional for alternative pain relief even if they knew certain OTC pain medications could increase BP.

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