Patient Race, Ethnicity, Language, and Pain Severity in Primary Care: A Retrospective Electronic Health Record Study

Patient race, ethnicity, and culture including language are intertwined and may influence patient reporting of pain severity.

To describe documentation of patient's self-reported pain presence and severity by race, ethnicity, and language, specifically, Spanish, Hmong, Lao, or Khmer requiring an interpreter or English.

Retrospective, electronic health record clinical data mining study of 79,195 patient visits with documented pain scores from one primary care clinic.

Hurdle regression was used to explore the effect of race, ethnicity, and language on the chances of having any pain (vs. no pain) and pain severity for visits with pain scores ≥1, controlling for age, sex, and documentation of a pain diagnosis. Mann-Whitney tests were used to explore the influence of English vs. non-English language on pain severity within a race or ethnicity category.

Pain scores were higher for limited English proficiency, compared with English-speaking, patients within the Asian race or Hispanic/Latino ethnicity category. Older age, female sex, pain diagnosis, Black or African American race, and Spanish or Lao language increased the chance of having any pain. These same factors, plus American Indian or Alaska Native race, contributed to higher pain severity. Asian race, in contrast, decreased the chance of reporting any pain and contributed to lesser pain severity.

Race, in addition to a new area of focus, language, impacted both the chances of reporting any pain and pain severity. Additional research is needed on the impact of language barriers on pain severity reporting, documentation, and differences in pain outcomes and disparities.