TY - JOUR
T1 - The influence of health care professional characteristics on pain management decisions
AU - Bartley, Emily J.
AU - Boissoneault, Jeff
AU - Vargovich, Alison M.
AU - Wandner, Laura D.
AU - Hirsh, Adam T.
AU - Lok, Benjamin C.
AU - Heft, Marc W.
AU - Robinson, Michael E.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 American Academy of Pain Medicine, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
PY - 2015/1/1
Y1 - 2015/1/1
N2 - Objective: Evidence suggests that patient characteristics such as sex, race, and age influence the pain management decisions of health care providers. Although this signifies that patient demographics may be important determinants of health care decisions, pain-related care also may be impacted by the personal characteristics of the health care practitioner. However, the extent to which health care provider characteristics affect pain management decisions is unclear, underscoring the need for further research in this area. Methods: A total of 154 health care providers (77 physicians, 77 dentists) viewed video vignettes of virtual human (VH) patients varying in sex, race, and age. Practitioners provided computerized ratings of VH patients' pain intensity and unpleasantness, and also reported their willingness to prescribe non-opioid and opioid analgesics for each patient. Practitioner sex, race, age, and duration of professional experience were included as predictors to determine their impact on pain management decisions. Results: When assessing and treating pain, practitioner sex, race, age, and duration of experience were all significantly associated with pain management decisions. Further, the role of these characteristics differed across VH patient sex, race, and age. Conclusions: These findings suggest that pain assessment and treatment decisions may be impacted by the health care providers' demographic characteristics, effects which may contribute to pain management disparities. Future research is warranted to determine whether findings replicate in other health care disciplines and medical conditions, and identify other practitioner characteristics (e.g., culture) that may affect pain management decisions.
AB - Objective: Evidence suggests that patient characteristics such as sex, race, and age influence the pain management decisions of health care providers. Although this signifies that patient demographics may be important determinants of health care decisions, pain-related care also may be impacted by the personal characteristics of the health care practitioner. However, the extent to which health care provider characteristics affect pain management decisions is unclear, underscoring the need for further research in this area. Methods: A total of 154 health care providers (77 physicians, 77 dentists) viewed video vignettes of virtual human (VH) patients varying in sex, race, and age. Practitioners provided computerized ratings of VH patients' pain intensity and unpleasantness, and also reported their willingness to prescribe non-opioid and opioid analgesics for each patient. Practitioner sex, race, age, and duration of professional experience were included as predictors to determine their impact on pain management decisions. Results: When assessing and treating pain, practitioner sex, race, age, and duration of experience were all significantly associated with pain management decisions. Further, the role of these characteristics differed across VH patient sex, race, and age. Conclusions: These findings suggest that pain assessment and treatment decisions may be impacted by the health care providers' demographic characteristics, effects which may contribute to pain management disparities. Future research is warranted to determine whether findings replicate in other health care disciplines and medical conditions, and identify other practitioner characteristics (e.g., culture) that may affect pain management decisions.
KW - Age
KW - Experience
KW - Gender
KW - Pain management disparities
KW - Pain treatment
KW - Provider characteristics
KW - Race
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U2 - 10.1111/pme.12591
DO - 10.1111/pme.12591
M3 - Article
C2 - 25339248
AN - SCOPUS:84921526803
SN - 1526-2375
VL - 16
SP - 99
EP - 111
JO - Pain Medicine (United States)
JF - Pain Medicine (United States)
IS - 1
ER -