Racial Bias in Pediatric Pain Perception.
J Pain
; 25(9): 104583, 2024 Sep.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38823604
ABSTRACT
Racial disparities in pediatric pain care are prevalent across a variety of health care settings, and likely contribute to broader disparities in health, morbidity, and mortality. The present research expands on prior work demonstrating potential perceptual contributions to pain care disparities in adults and tests whether racial bias in pain perception extends to child targets. We examined the perception and hypothetical treatment of pain in Black and White boys (experiment 1), Black and White boys and girls (experiment 2), Black and White boys and adult men (experiment 3), and Black, White, Asian, and Latinx boys (experiment 4). Across this work, pain was less readily perceived on Black (vs White) boys' faces-though this bias was not observed within girls. Moreover, this perceptual bias was comparable in magnitude to the same bias measured with adult targets and consistently predicted bias in hypothetical treatment. Notably, bias was not limited to Black targets-pain on Hispanic/Latinx boys' faces was also relatively underperceived. Taken together, these results offer strong evidence for racial bias in pediatric pain perception. PERSPECTIVE This article demonstrates perceptual contributions to racial bias in pediatric pain recognition. Participants consistently saw pain less readily on Black boys' faces, compared with White boys, and this perceptual bias consistently predicted race-based gaps in treatment. This work reveals a novel factor that may support pediatric pain care disparities.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Dolor
/
Percepción del Dolor
/
Racismo
Límite:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Child
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Pain
Asunto de la revista:
NEUROLOGIA
/
PSICOFISIOLOGIA
Año:
2024
Tipo del documento:
Article
Pais de publicación:
Estados Unidos