Abstract
Racial/ethnic minorities in the US and other countries have been found to report higher levels of both clinical and experimental pain, yet are frequently undertreated for their pain. Although racial/ethnic group differences in pain report are well-documented, the underlying causes of these pain report disparities remain largely unknown. Following a prior study we conducted on the effect of clinician-patient group concordance on pain report using lab-created groups, in the present study we investigated the role of doctor-patient racial/ethnic concordance in predicting patient pain. We report a preliminary analysis of a sample of 70 patient participants and 11 doctor participants drawn from a larger study. Participants were assigned to either a racial/ethnic concordant or discordant simulated clinical interaction. During each interaction, the doctor assessed the medical history and vital signs of the patient and then administered a series of painful heat stimulations to the patient's forearm as an analogue of a painful medical procedure. As hypothesized, we found a direct effect of racial/ethnic concordance on patient pain report. Contrary to our prediction, we found that patients reported greater pain when paired with a racially/ethnically concordant—rather than discordant—doctor. We also found that patients rated racially/ethnically discordant doctors as greater in trust and self-similarity than concordant doctors. Our results demonstrate that the effects of racial/ethnic concordance may go deeper than patient satisfaction to influence the more direct health outcome of pain. The results of our study provide evidence that interventions aimed at improving patient feelings of trust and self-similarity toward their doctor may help reduce persistent racial/ethnic disparities in pain report. In addition, our results suggest that continued efforts to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the physician workforce may help mitigate racial/ethnic disparities in pain report.
