Sociodemographic Differences in Patient-Reported Pain and Pain Management of Patients With Head and Neck Cancer in a Community Oncology Setting

Abstract

ANSWER: The findings from our study suggests that while there were no racial differences in rate of pain reporting and odds of reporting pain among White versus non-White patients with HNC, White patients who reported pain incidents were significantly more likely to receive new pain prescription than non-White patients. WHAT WE DID: There are currently no universally accepted guidelines for managing pain during and after treatment for HNC. To assess whether there are disparities in pain management for patients with HNC by race, we built a retrospective cohort of 25,571 patients, using data from Navigating Cancer, derived from over 250 community oncology clinics in the United States. We analyzed data for patients with $ 1 patient-reported pain event, reported through the nurse triage system, adjusting for demographic (sex, age, smoking history, marital status) and clinical (cancer site). WHAT WE FOUND: We had 2,331 patients in our analytic cohort, and 90.58% were White patients. There were no differences in frequency of reporting pain incidents on the basis of race, and odds of reporting pain incidents were not different between White versus non-White patients with HNC. However, mean resolution time for pain incidents was significantly longer for White patients than for non-White patients (P , .05). Also, White patients with HNC had over two times the odds of receiving a new prescription for pain than non-White patients.