University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia.
Pain Res Manag. 2012 Nov-Dec;17(6):381-4. doi: 10.1155/2012/803474.
Evidence of inadequate pain treatment as a result of patient race has been extensively documented, yet remains poorly understood. Previous research has indicated that nonwhite patients are significantly more likely to be undertreated for pain.
To determine whether previous findings of racial biases in pain treatment recommendations and empathy are generalizable to a sample of Canadian observers and, if so, to determine whether empathy biases mediate the pain treatment disparity.
Fifty Canadian undergraduate students (24 men and 26 women) watched videos of black and white patients exhibiting facial expressions of pain. Participants provided pain treatment decisions and reported their feelings of empathy for each patient.
Participants demonstrated both a prowhite treatment bias and a prowhite empathy bias, reporting more empathy for white patients than black patients and prescribing more pain treatment for white patients than black patients. Empathy was found to mediate the effect of race on pain treatment.
The results of the present study closely replicate those from a previous study of American observers, providing evidence that a prowhite bias is not a peculiar feature of the American population. These results also add support to the claim that empathy plays a crucial role in racial pain treatment disparity.
有大量证据表明，由于患者的种族，导致他们的疼痛治疗不充分，但这一现象仍未得到充分理解。先前的研究表明，非白人患者接受疼痛治疗的可能性明显更低。
确定先前在疼痛治疗建议和同理心方面存在的种族偏见是否可以推广到加拿大观察者样本中，如果可以，那么同理心偏见是否会调解疼痛治疗差异。
50 名加拿大本科生（24 名男性和 26 名女性）观看了黑人患者和白人患者表现出痛苦表情的视频。参与者提供疼痛治疗决策，并报告他们对每个患者的同理心感受。
参与者表现出了亲白治疗偏见和亲白同理心偏见，报告对白人患者的同理心比对黑人患者更多，并且对白人患者的疼痛治疗比黑人患者更多。同理心被发现调解了种族对疼痛治疗的影响。
本研究的结果与之前对美国观察者的研究结果非常相似，为亲白偏见不是美国人群的特有特征提供了证据。这些结果还进一步支持了同理心在种族疼痛治疗差异中起着关键作用的说法。
