ArticlePain2025
Over 50 years of research on social disparities in pain and pain treatment: a scoping review of reviews.
Article in Pain, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Your voice matters: using participatory film to engage people with chronic pain in public involvement and research.Research involvement and engagement · 2026Article
- Towards a holistic understanding of pain in the biomarker age.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- Fibromyalgia in systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases: a mixed-methods study of patient and clinician perspectives.Rheumatology international · 2026Article
- Article
- Differences in the use of pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatments among patients with chronic low back pain between 2017 and 2021: A cross-sectional study of commercial claims.The journal of pain · 2026Article
- Sense of Coherence in the Trauma-Fibromyalgia Relationship: Mediation and Moderation Findings from a 2099-Participant Cohort.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2026Article
- Country-level gender inequality and sex disparities in adolescent chronic pain: A 47-country analysis.Preventive medicine · 2026Article
- Emergency physicians in pain medicine: Workforce trends, competency overlap, gaps, and opportunities for integration.Interventional pain medicine · 2026Article
- Pain management of adults in the prehospital setting: a scoping review.BMC emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Beyond pain presence: the impact of multisite pain and pain interference on cognitive functioning among middle-aged and older adults.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- Joint call to action paper-Pain disparities special issues: Why this, why now? A unified call at a critical time.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Article
- Unmet health-related social needs are associated with pain outcomes among midlife and older adults.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Exploring chronic pain: demographic and social determinants of health insights in Maine.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Let's talk about pain: A mixed methods exploration of patients' pain knowledge and preferred ways to introduce the biopsychosocial model of pain.Canadian journal of pain = Revue canadienne de la douleur · 2026Article
- Using Multi-Method Insights to Develop a Novel Chronic Pain Self-Management Intervention for Black Older Adults.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2025Article
- Sex differences in joint pain, limb function and quality of life among patients with Kashin-Beck disease in Northwest China.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
23 authors.
Funding
Abstract
abstractResearch on social disparities in pain and pain treatment has grown substantially in recent decades, as reflected in a growing number of review articles on these topics. This scoping review of reviews provides a macrolevel overview of scholarship in this area by examining what specific topics and findings have been presented in published reviews. We searched CINAHL, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science for English-language, peer-reviewed review articles, qualitative or quantitative, that aimed to characterize or explain pain-related differences or inequities across social groups. Of 4432 unique records screened, 397 articles, published over a 56-year period, were included. For each, we documented (1) axes of social difference studied (eg, sex/gender, race/ethnicity), (2) pain-related outcomes (eg, chronic pain prevalence), (3) broad findings, (4) types of mechanisms proposed, and (5) policy or practice recommendations. Findings reveal a sharp increase in the number of published review articles on pain-related disparities since approximately the year 2000. The most commonly studied social dimension was sex/gender, followed by race/ethnicity and age. Studies examining disparities by socioeconomic status, geography, or other categories were rarer. While most findings showed disadvantaged social groups to have worse pain outcomes, there were intriguing exceptions. Biological, psychological, and sociocultural mechanisms were considered much more frequently than sociostructural (macrolevel) ones. Policy/practice recommendations were typically individual-level behavioral suggestions for providers or patients. We identify high-priority areas for future research, including greater attention to lower-income countries, chronic pain prevention, and macrolevel drivers of pain disparities.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.