Mathieson S, Wertheimer G, Maher CG,, et al. - A systematic review and meta-regression of observational studies were conducted to ascertain the proportion of individuals with chronic noncancer pain who are prescribed an opioid, the types prescribed and factors associated with prescribing. Researchers carried out database searches from inception to 29 October 2018 without language restrictions. This study included adults with chronic noncancer pain measuring opioid prescribing. They distinguished a total of 5,059,098 participants from 42 studies, the majority (n = 28) were from the United States of America. The meta-regression discovered that opioid prescribing was correlated with year of sampling (more prescribing in recent years) (P = 0.014) and not the geographic region. The evidence showed that opioid prescribing for individuals with chronic noncancer pain is common and has increased over time.