Use of strong painkillers (age: 15+)

This indicator shows the proportion of the population aged 15 and over that had taken strong painkillers every day or almost every day (on at least 20 days) in the previous 30 days.

Addiction Switzerland collected these data on behalf of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) between 2011 and 2016 as part of a telephone survey (CoRoIAR) of around 11 000 people. Since 2018, these questions have been asked in a comparable way in the Health and Lifestyle survey, an online questionnaire by the FOPH and the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) (n₂₀₁₈ ≈ 5600; n₂₀₂₂ ≈ 5400; n₂₀₂₄ ≈ 6000). However, no data on the use of painkillers can be shown for 2018.

Since 2022 the following three questions have been asked in the survey (if the answer was yes, the next question was asked):

• Question 1: "Have you taken strong painkillers in the last 12 months, e.g., Oxycodone®, Morphine®, Fentanyl® (not common painkillers for headaches like aspirin or paracetamol)?"
• Question 2: "Have you taken these strong painkillers in the last 30 days?"
• Question 3: "On how many days in the last 30 days have you taken these strong painkillers?"

The shares shown in the indicator refer to persons who answered the last question with "on 20 days or more".