These outcome measures provided an indirect means of assessing patterns of analgesic usage and potential for misuse of analgesics. Prior research has shown that paracetamol is more suitable for use in a larger proportion of the general population than is ibuprofen.[7] Using a similar methodology, a suitability rate was calculated for regular OTC analgesic users (the proportion of regular OTC analgesic users with no current contraindications, warnings or precautions or potential drug–drug interactions to the analgesic that they had used). The criteria used to determine analgesic suitability are listed in Table 1. Statistical comparisons were performed

to determine whether the suitability rate was different between paracetamol

and NSAIDs and whether it had changed between the two studies. Participants’ responses were summarised and chi-square INCB024360 nmr analysis performed to identify significant differences between groups. All data analyses and statistics were performed using SPSS software (version 15.0; SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA). Data were collected for 3702 respondents (2001 survey, n = 1901; 2009 survey, n = 1801). Table 2 provides a detailed breakdown of the samples for each survey. Analgesic use remains prevalent in Australia; 85.0% of respondents reported using an OTC analgesic at least once a year (2001, 1618/1901; 2009, 1545/1801). Regular use declined from 67.5% (1283/1901) in 2001 to 55.0% (993/1801) ABT-199 cost in 2009 (P < 0.05). Regular users of analgesics were more likely to be female (2001, 731/1283, 57.0%; 2009, 566/993, 57.0%), irrespective of compound usage. Among regular users of OTC analgesics, significant changes in the compound last used occurred between the two surveys (Figure 1). In both surveys, ibuprofen accounted for more than 99.0% of the reported Cell press total NSAID use. The proportion of people reporting using an

OTC NSAID increased from 11.0% (141/1283) in 2001 to 26.0% (258/993) in 2009 (P < 0.05). Purchasing habits changed significantly between 2001 and 2009; in 2001 NSAIDs were not available outside the pharmacy setting but in 2009 42.0% (87/206) of regular OTC NSAID users purchased this product in a general sales environment and of those who did purchase an OTC NSAID in the pharmacy 41.0% (45/109) self-selected the product. More people under the age of 54 years reported regular use of OTC analgesics than did those aged 55 years or more, with a higher proportion of these respondents using NSAIDs than paracetamol (Figure 2). Regular use of paracetamol was significantly higher than that of NSAIDs in respondents aged 65 years or more in 2001 and in 2009 (P < 0.05). There were no significant changes in reported usage of OTC analgesics between the 2001 and 2009 surveys.