Background and Aims: Osteoarthritis (OA) causes pain and disability, limiting the performance of various activities of daily living. Pharmacological management of OA focuses on a reduction of symptoms including pain and functional decline. The aim of this study is to understand how physicians in Japan are currently treating OA. 
Methods: Data were drawn from the Adelphi OA Disease Specific Programme (2017-18), a point-in-time study of physicians and their patients in Japan. OA severity was assessed by physicians, who categorised patients as mild, moderate or severe. Physicians provided details on prescribed OA therapy and rated their satisfaction with therapy from very satisfied to very dissatisfied. Descriptive statistics were reported.
Results: The study included 393 patients: 41% had mild (n=160), 50% moderate (n=196) and 9% severe OA (n=37). Overall, 81% of patients were treated with a drug for their OA (74% of mild; 85% of moderate; 89% of severe patients). NSAIDs (63%) and hyaluronic acid for intra-articular injection (35%) were most frequently used. A small proportion of patients received an opioid (13%).  The mean number of pharmacologic drugs increased (1.0 for mild, 1.3 for moderate and 1.4 for severe) and physician satisfaction decreased (88% for mild; 71% for moderate; 51% for severe) with increasing OA severity.
Conclusions: High use of NSAIDs and/or hyaluronic acid suggests a preference for conservative pharmacologic treatment of OA in Japan. However, satisfaction levels suggest that physicians are looking for better efficacy and safety to treat patients as their severity worsens.

CURRENT TREATMENT PATTERNS AMONG PATIENTS WITH OSTEOARTHRITIS IN JAPAN: ANALYSIS OF A REAL-WORLD DATASET