Wesolowicz Danielle M, Clark Jaylyn F, Boissoneault Jeff, Robinson Michael E
Department of Clinical Health Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
J Pain Res. 2018 Jun 15;11:1121-1128. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S162123. eCollection 2018.
Gender-related stereotypes of pain may account for some assessment and treatment disparities among patients. Among health care providers, demographic factors including gender and profession may influence the use of gender cues in pain management decision-making. The Gender Role Expectations of Pain Questionnaire was developed to assess gender-related stereotypic attributions of pain regarding sensitivity, endurance, and willingness to report pain, and has not yet been used in a sample of health care providers. The purpose of this study was to examine the presence of gender role expectation of pain among health care providers. It was hypothesized that health care providers of both genders would endorse gender stereotypic views of pain and physicians would be more likely than dentists to endorse these views.
One-hundred and sixty-nine providers (89 dentists, 80 physicians; 40% women) were recruited as part of a larger study examining providers' use of demographic cues in making pain management decisions. Participants completed the Gender Role Expectations of Pain Questionnaire to assess the participant's views of gender differences in pain sensitivity, pain endurance, and willingness to report pain.
Results of repeated measures analysis of variance revealed that health care providers of both genders endorsed stereotypic views of pain regarding willingness to report pain (=34.241, <0.001; =0.479). Furthermore, female dentists rated men as having less endurance than women (=4.654, =0.032; =0.333).
These findings affirm the presence of some gender-related stereotypic views among health care providers and suggest the presence of a view among health care providers that men are underreporting their pain in comparison to women. Future work can refine the effects of social learning history and other psychosocial factors that contribute to gender and provider differences in pain management decisions.
与性别相关的疼痛刻板印象可能是患者之间评估和治疗差异的部分原因。在医疗保健提供者中，包括性别和职业在内的人口统计学因素可能会影响疼痛管理决策中性别线索的使用。疼痛的性别角色期望问卷旨在评估与性别相关的关于疼痛敏感性、耐痛性和报告疼痛意愿的刻板印象归因，尚未在医疗保健提供者样本中使用。本研究的目的是检验医疗保健提供者中疼痛性别角色期望的存在情况。研究假设是，男女医疗保健提供者都会认同疼痛的性别刻板印象观点，并且医生比牙医更有可能认同这些观点。
作为一项关于提供者在做出疼痛管理决策时使用人口统计学线索的大型研究的一部分，招募了169名提供者（89名牙医，80名医生；40%为女性）。参与者完成了疼痛的性别角色期望问卷，以评估参与者对疼痛敏感性、耐痛性和报告疼痛意愿方面性别差异的看法。
重复测量方差分析结果显示，男女医疗保健提供者都认同关于报告疼痛意愿的疼痛刻板印象观点（F = 34.241，p < 0.001；η² = 0.479）。此外，女牙医认为男性的耐痛性低于女性（F = 4.654，p = 0.032；η² = 0.333）。
这些发现证实了医疗保健提供者中存在一些与性别相关的刻板印象观点，并表明医疗保健提供者中存在一种观点，即与女性相比，男性报告的疼痛较少。未来的工作可以细化社会学习史和其他心理社会因素对疼痛管理决策中性别和提供者差异的影响。
