Background & Aims
Background: Opioid analgesics are essential medications for acute and some chronic pain management in diseases like cancer and palliative care. However, inadequate access to opioids is a major public health concern in many developing countries, including those in Africa for such conditions.
Methods
Methods: The present study updates and expands upon the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) data obtained from 1999 to 2021, which displays the trends of opioid consumption and evaluates the national data in all African countries over the last 20 years. In addition, opioid consumption between French- and English-speaking African countries was also compared to identify possible disparities. To explain trends in opioid consumption, we also extracted data from the Global Cancer Observatory (Globocan) database to compare if the amount of opioid consumption is proportional to the incidence of cancer in African countries.
Results
Findings: Our result showed that the opioid consumption trend has been stagnant from 1999 to 2021 and that there was a huge disparity between English- and French-speaking countries (high versus low consumptions, respectively). Also, we demonstrated that opioid consumption increases along with income level. A huge gap was observed between English- and French-speaking African countries in the upper middle- and high-income countries. Besides, we also found that cancer incidence is increasing in all countries, which is not correlated to the trend of opioid use. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the use of opioids in French-speaking African countries is even lower compared with their English-speaking counterparts.
Conclusions
This research highlights the trends in the doubling use of opioids globally. However, in the African continent, specifically the French-speaking African countries, consumption continues to remain stagnant and insufficient. Therefore, these results necessitate policy change to improve opioid access in Africa for cancer pain and palliative care, particularly in French-speaking African countries.
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Presenting Author
Yacine Hadjiat
Poster Authors
Yacine HADJIAT
MD
INSERM
Lead Author
Topics
- Treatment/Management: Pharmacology: Opioid