Race and ethnicity do not affect baseline self-report of pain severity in patients with suspected long-bone fractures

Abstract

Objective. To determine whether race or ethnicity affect baseline description of pain by patients with suspected long-bone fracture. Design. Secondary analysis of data from an observational study of patients age 18 - 55 in two urban emergency departments. Outcome Measures. Patients rated their pain using an 11-point scale, where 0 represents no pain, and 10 represents the worst possible pain. Results. Of 838 patients, 49% were Hispanic, 29% African American, and 22% White. Mean baseline pain scores were, respectively, 8.2, 8.1, and 7.7. In multivariate analysis, pair-wise comparisons showed no significant differences in pain self-report. Conclusions. Ethnoracial oligoanalgesia cannot be explained by differences in baseline pain severity. © 2009 American Academy of Pain Medicine.