Every 11 minutes someone in the U.S. dies of an Opioid overdose… Center for Disease Control (CDC) The opioid epidemic or opioid crisis is a term that generally refers to the rapid increase in the use of prescription and non-prescription opioid drugs, particularly in the United States and Canada, beginning in the late 1990s.

Chronic low back pain is a highly prevalent and disabling musculoskeletal pain condition, especially among older adults. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a treatment option for this pain, but few studies have assessed how older adults respond to TENS when compared with younger adults.