Association between first-step analgesic use and cancer in patients with diabetes

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of analgesics in inhibiting cancer development in patients with diabetes based on a sample cohort supplied by the Korean National Health In-surance Service. Materials and methods: Regular users of analgesics included those using prescription analgesics >= 15 days per month at least 6 times over 2 years after the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus (baseline). The effectiveness of analgesics in patients with diabetes was evaluated using metfor-min adherence and three models: model 1 was adjusted for age and sex; model 2 was further adjusted for body mass index (BMI), exercise, cholesterol, hypertension, and Charlson comorbidity index (CCI); and mod-el 3 was further adjusted for analgesics. Re-sults: Based on stringent extraction criteria, the sample had a cancer incidence of 4.6%. The hazard ratios of models 1 and 2 were 0.830 and 0.865, respectively. The adjusted hazard ratio for all variables, including ac-etaminophen and nonsteroidal anti-inflam-matory drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen, was 0.871 (model 3). Conclusion: Regular use of analgesics by patients with diabetes decreased their risk of subsequent cancer development in this large national cohort. Compared with participants who did not de-velop cancer, those with cancer were older and more likely to be male, did not exercise, have more comorbidities (as assessed by CCI), and did not use analgesics regularly.