Ahn Hyochol, Weaver Michael, Lyon Debra E, Kim Junglyun, Choi Eunyoung, Staud Roland, Fillingim Roger B
*College of Nursing†College of Medicine, University of Florida‡University of Florida Pain Research and Intervention Center of Excellence, Gainesville, FL.
Clin J Pain. 2017 Feb;33(2):174-180. doi: 10.1097/AJP.0000000000000378.
Ethnicity has been associated with clinical and experimental pain responses. Whereas ethnic disparities in pain in other minority groups compared with whites are well described, pain in Asian Americans remains poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to characterize differences in clinical pain intensity and experimental pain sensitivity among older Asian American and non-Hispanic white (NHW) participants with knee osteoarthritis (OA).
Data were collected from 50 Asian Americans ages 45 to 85 (28 Korean, 9 Chinese, 7 Japanese, 5 Filipino, and 1 Indian) and compared with 50 age-matched and sex-matched NHW individuals with symptomatic knee OA pain. The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index and Graded Chronic Pain Scale were used to assess the intensity of clinical knee pain. In addition, quantitative sensory testing was used to measure experimental sensitivity to heat-induced and mechanically induced pain.
Asian American participants had significantly higher levels of clinical pain intensity than NHW participants with knee OA. In addition, Asian American participants had significantly higher experimental pain sensitivity than NHW participants with knee OA.
These findings add to the growing literature regarding ethnic and racial differences in clinical pain intensity and experimental pain sensitivity. Asian Americans in particular may be at risk for clinical pain and heightened experimental pain sensitivity. Further investigation is needed to identify the mechanisms underlying ethnic group differences in pain between Asian Americans and NHWs, and to ensure that ethnic group disparities in pain are ameliorated.
种族与临床及实验性疼痛反应相关。虽然与白人相比，其他少数族裔在疼痛方面的种族差异已有充分描述，但对亚裔美国人的疼痛情况仍知之甚少。本研究的目的是描述患有膝骨关节炎（OA）的老年亚裔美国人和非西班牙裔白人（NHW）参与者在临床疼痛强度和实验性疼痛敏感性方面的差异。
收集了50名年龄在45至85岁之间的亚裔美国人（28名韩国人、9名中国人、7名日本人、5名菲律宾人和1名印度人）的数据，并与50名年龄和性别匹配、有症状性膝OA疼痛的NHW个体进行比较。使用西安大略和麦克马斯特大学骨关节炎指数及分级慢性疼痛量表评估临床膝痛强度。此外，采用定量感觉测试来测量对热诱导和机械诱导疼痛的实验性敏感性。
患有膝OA的亚裔美国参与者的临床疼痛强度水平显著高于NHW参与者。此外，亚裔美国参与者的实验性疼痛敏感性也显著高于患有膝OA的NHW参与者。
这些发现进一步丰富了关于临床疼痛强度和实验性疼痛敏感性方面种族差异的文献。尤其是亚裔美国人可能面临临床疼痛和更高实验性疼痛敏感性的风险。需要进一步研究以确定亚裔美国人和NHW之间种族差异在疼痛方面的潜在机制，并确保改善种族间的疼痛差异。
