Abstract
Research suggests that patient sex, provider sex, and providers' sexist attitudes
interact to influence pain care; however, few empirical studies have examined these
influences. We investigated sex (patient and provider) differences in pain treatment
and the extent to which providers' sexist attitudes were associated with these differences.
Ninety-eight health care providers (52% female) completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory
and made treatment ratings for 16 computer-simulated patients with low back pain.
Patient sex was balanced across vignettes. Results indicated that female patients
received significantly higher antidepressant (F[1, 96] = 4.51, P < .05, = .05) and mental health referral (F[1, 96] = 3.89, P = .05, = .04) ratings than male patients, which is consistent with our hypotheses; however,
these differences were significant only among female providers. Controlling for providers'
sexism scores did not substantially alter these results, which is counter to our hypotheses.
These results suggest that female providers are more likely to recommend psychosocial
treatments for female than for male pain patients, and providers' sexist attitudes
do not account for these differences. Research is needed to elucidate the contributors
to sex/gender differences in treatment in order to reduce pain disparities.
Perspective
The results of this study suggest that patient and provider sex, but not providers'
sexist attitudes, influence pain care. These findings may inform efforts to raise
awareness of sex/gender differences in pain care and reduce disparities.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 26, 2014
Accepted:
February 11,
2014
Received in revised form:
January 20,
2014
Received:
August 9,
2013
Footnotes
Supported by the Indiana University Collaborative Research Grant fund of the Office of the Vice President for Research, a Release Time for Research grant from the IUPUI Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, and a Summer Faculty Grant from the Purdue Research Foundation.
The authors declare no conflicts of interest with this study.
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
