Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
J Dent Res. 2013 Apr;92(4):301-5. doi: 10.1177/0022034513480802. Epub 2013 Feb 27.
Healthcare professionals use race, gender, and age cues when making pain management decisions. Use of these demographic cues, therefore, is an important topic in the study of healthcare disparities. This study used virtual human (VH) technology to investigate the effects of VH patients' demographic cues on dentists' pain management decisions. Eighty-nine dentists viewed patients with different demographic cues. Analyses revealed that dentists rated pain intensity higher and were more willing to prescribe opioids to female, African-American, and younger patients than to their demographic counterparts. Results also found significant 2-way interactions between race and age for both pain assessment and treatment decisions. The interaction results suggest that the race difference (Caucasian < African American) was more pronounced for younger than for older patients. This is the first study to examine demographic cue use in dentists' decision-making for pain. The study found that dentists used demographic cues when making pain management decisions. Currently, there are no guidelines for decision- making practices for gender-, race-, or age-related pain. Since dentists see thousands of patients during their careers, the use of demographic cues could affect a substantial portion of the population. The findings could improve future training programs for dentists and dental students.
医疗保健专业人员在进行疼痛管理决策时会使用种族、性别和年龄线索。因此，这些人口统计学线索的使用是医疗保健差异研究中的一个重要课题。本研究使用虚拟人 (VH) 技术调查了 VH 患者人口统计学线索对牙医疼痛管理决策的影响。89 名牙医为不同人口统计学线索的患者进行了治疗。分析表明，与他们的人口统计学对应者相比，牙医对女性、非裔美国人和年轻患者的疼痛强度评估更高，并且更愿意为他们开阿片类药物。结果还发现，种族和年龄对疼痛评估和治疗决策都存在显著的双向交互作用。交互作用的结果表明，对于年轻患者来说，种族差异（白种人<非裔美国人）比老年患者更为明显。这是首次研究牙医在疼痛管理决策中对人口统计学线索的使用。该研究发现，牙医在做出疼痛管理决策时会使用人口统计学线索。目前，针对与性别、种族或年龄相关的疼痛，没有决策实践的指导方针。由于牙医在职业生涯中会看到数千名患者，因此人口统计学线索的使用可能会影响到相当一部分人群。这些发现可以改进未来牙医和牙科学生的培训计划。
