ArticleInternational journal of nursing studies2014
The impact of patients' gender, race, and age on health care professionals' pain management decisions: an online survey using virtual human technology.
Article in International journal of nursing studies, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
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31 citing papers in PubMed, 79 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trial
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- Health-Related Gender Knowledge: Scale Development and Validation in Spanish Nursing Students.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2025Article
- Gender Bias in the Perception of Others' Fatigue: Women Report More Fatigue Than Men But Have Their Fatigue Underestimated by Others.Sex roles · 2024Article
- Sex bias in pain management decisions.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Unconscious Bias among Health Professionals: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Prospective paired crossover evaluation of potential impact of investigator gender on perceived pain intensity early after acute or scheduled surgery.Biology of sex differences · 2023Observational
- A retrospective review of post-intubation sedation and analgesia practices in a South African private ambulance service.African journal of emergency medicine : Revue africaine de la medecine d'urgence · 2022Article
- Gender awareness is also nurses' business: Measuring sensitivity and role ideology towards patients.Journal of nursing management · 2022Article
- Patient Race, Ethnicity, Language, and Pain Severity in Primary Care: A Retrospective Electronic Health Record Study.Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses · 2022Article
- Pain Control Disparities in Acute Pancreatitis.Cureus · 2022Article
- Gender Biases in Estimation of Others' Pain.The journal of pain · 2021Article
- Assessment of Knowledge about Healthcare Risk Waste Management at a Tertiary Hospital in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- The Association Between Analgesic Treatment Beliefs and Electronically Monitored Adherence for Cancer Pain.Oncology nursing forum · 2021Article
- Provider Characteristics Associated With Outpatient Opioid Prescribing After Surgery.Annals of surgery · 2020Article
- Differences in nurses’ perceptions of self-reported pain and the administered morphine dose according to the patient’s facial expression in KoreaJournal of educational evaluation for health professions · 2020Article
- Creating an mHealth App for Colorectal Cancer Screening: User-Centered Design Approach.JMIR human factors · 2019Article
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9 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPrevious literature indicates that biases exist in pain ratings. Healthcare professionals have been found to use patient demographic cues such as sex, race, and age when making decisions about pain treatment. However, there has been little research comparing healthcare professionals' (i.e., physicians and nurses) pain decision policies based on patient demographic cues.
methodsThe current study used virtual human technology to examine the impact of patients' sex, race, and age on healthcare professionals' pain ratings. One hundred and ninety-three healthcare professionals (nurses and physicians) participated in this online study.
resultsHealthcare professionals assessed virtual human patients who were male and African American to be experiencing greater pain intensity and were more willing to administer opioid analgesics to them than to their demographic counterparts. Similarly, nurses were more willing to administer opioids make treatment decisions than physicians. There was also a significant virtual human-sex by healthcare professional interaction for pain assessment and treatment decisions. The sex difference (male>female) was greater for nurses than physicians.
conclusionsResults replicated findings of previous studies using virtual human patients to assess the effect of sex, race, and age in pain decision-making. In addition, healthcare professionals' pain ratings differed depending on healthcare profession. Nurses were more likely to rate pain higher and be more willing to administer opioid analgesics than were physicians. Healthcare professionals rated male and African American virtual human patients as having higher pain in most pain assessment and treatment domains compared to their demographic counterparts. Similarly the virtual human-sex difference ratings were more pronounced for nurses than physicians. Given the large number of patients seen throughout the healthcare professionals' careers, these pain practice biases have important public health implications. This study suggests attention to the influence of patient demographic cues in pain management education is needed.
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