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Clinical Trial
. 2017 Jun;18(4):737-742.
doi: 10.5811/westjem.2017.1.32723. Epub 2017 Apr 17.

Pain Perception in Latino vs. Caucasian and Male vs. Female Patients: Is There Really a Difference?

Molly Aufiero  1 , Holly Stankewicz  1 , Shaila Quazi  2 , Jeanne Jacoby  3 , Jill Stoltzfus  4
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Pain Perception in Latino vs. Caucasian and Male vs. Female Patients: Is There Really a Difference?

Molly Aufiero et al. West J Emerg Med. 2017 Jun.

Abstract

Introduction: Pain is a common emergency department (ED) complaint. It is important to understand the differences in pain perception among different ethnic and demographic populations.

Methods: We applied a standardized painful stimulus to Caucasian and Latino adult patients to determine whether the level of pain reported differed depending on ethnicity (N=100; 50 Caucasian [C], 50 Latino [L] patients) and gender (N=100; 59 female, 41 male). Patients had an initial pain score of 0 or 1. A blood pressure cuff was inflated 20 mm HG above the patient's systolic blood pressure and held for three minutes. Pain scores, using both a 10-cm visual analog scale (VAS) and a five-point Likert scale, were taken at the point of maximal stimulus (2 minutes 50 seconds after inflation), and at one- and two-minute intervals post deflation.

Results: There was a statistically significant difference between the Likert scale scores of Caucasian and Latino patients at 2min 50sec (mean rank: 4.35 [C] vs. 5.75 [L], p<0.01), but not on the VAS (mean value: 2.94 [C] vs. 3.46 [L], p=0.255). Women had a higher perception of pain than males at 2min 50sec on the VAS (mean value: 3.86 [F] vs. 2.24 [M], p<0.0001), and the Likert scale (mean rank: 5.63 [F] vs. 4.21 [M], p<0.01).

Conclusion: Latinos and women report greater pain with a standardized pain stimulus as compared to Caucasians and men.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: By the WestJEM article submission agreement, all authors are required to disclose all affiliations, funding sources and financial or management relationships that could be perceived as potential sources of bias. No author has professional or financial relationships with any companies that are relevant to this study. There are no conflicts of interest or sources of funding to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
McGill pain descriptors (modified short-form version).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pain perception of females (n =59) vs. males (n=41), and Latinos (n=50) vs. Caucasians (n=50) at time of maximal painful stimulus (2 min 50 sec) using the 10-cm visual analog scores (VAS). Mean values obtained using the independent samples t-test.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Pain perception of females vs. males and Latinos vs. Caucasians at time of maximal painful stimulus (2 min 50 sec) using the 10-cm visual analog scores (VAS). Mean ranks obtained using the Mann-Whitney rank sums test.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Pain perception of females vs. males and Latinos vs. Caucasians at time of maximal painful stimulus (2 min 50 sec) using the 5-point Likert scale (0–4). Mean ranks obtained using the Mann-Whitney rank sums test.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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