Limani Merita, Zajacova Anna
Department of Sociology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
Can J Pain. 2025 May 19;8(2):2496683. doi: 10.1080/24740527.2025.2496683. eCollection 2024.
Understanding pain disparities is critical for fostering health equity and guiding effective health policies. However, little is known about racial/ethnic disparities in pain among adults in Canada.
We provide a comprehensive analysis of racial/ethnic disparities in pain among Canadian adults, focusing on two dimensions of pain - frequent pain and interfering pain.
We use two-wave cross-sectional data collected in 2020 and 2022 from a representative sample of 4,637 adults aged 18 and older residing in Canada. We calculate the prevalence of pain among White, Black, East/Southeast Asian, South Asian, Indigenous, Multiracial, and "Other" groups and estimate relative differences adjusted for key covariates in a multivariable framework.
The data reveal large and statistically significant pain disparities; specific patterns, however, vary across the two pain outcomes and by gender. Indigenous Canadians have relatively high prevalence of both frequent pain (38.4%) and interfering pain (27.8%), while East/Southeast Asian Canadians have the lowest prevalence of both (8.2% and 14.4%, respectively). Black Canadians have a relatively low prevalence of frequent pain (16.9%) but a very high prevalence of interfering pain (27.8%). Covariates are associated with pain levels but less so with the racial/ethnic patterns in pain.
Our analysis highlights substantial racial/ethnic disparities in pain prevalence among Canadian adults. Further research is essential to better understand the root causes of the observed disparities and ultimately improve the lives of Canadians living with pain.
了解疼痛差异对于促进健康公平和制定有效的卫生政策至关重要。然而，对于加拿大成年人中疼痛的种族/民族差异知之甚少。
我们对加拿大成年人疼痛的种族/民族差异进行了全面分析，重点关注疼痛的两个维度——频繁疼痛和干扰性疼痛。
我们使用了2020年和2022年收集的两波横断面数据，这些数据来自居住在加拿大的4637名18岁及以上成年人的代表性样本。我们计算了白人、黑人、东亚/东南亚人、南亚人、原住民、多种族和“其他”群体中的疼痛患病率，并在多变量框架中估计了针对关键协变量进行调整后的相对差异。
数据显示存在巨大且具有统计学意义的疼痛差异；然而，具体模式在两种疼痛结果和不同性别之间有所不同。加拿大原住民的频繁疼痛（38.4%）和干扰性疼痛（27.8%）患病率相对较高，而东亚/东南亚裔加拿大人的这两种疼痛患病率最低（分别为8.2%和14.4%）。加拿大黑人的频繁疼痛患病率相对较低（16.9%），但干扰性疼痛患病率非常高（27.8%）。协变量与疼痛水平相关，但与疼痛的种族/民族模式相关性较小。
我们的分析突出了加拿大成年人疼痛患病率中存在的重大种族/民族差异。进一步的研究对于更好地理解观察到的差异的根本原因并最终改善患有疼痛的加拿大人的生活至关重要。
