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- Gender discrimination is associated with greater…
Gender discrimination is associated with greater chronic pain interference among women
Key Points
- Gender-based discrimination is associated with greater stress, worse mental health, low self-esteem, and depression.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
Health disparity is a global issue and described as inequality in access, availability, or tools to optimize social determinants of health (1). Political, social, and economic factors and systems affect the ability of groups to reach their full potential for health. Simply stated, wealthier people have better access, but lack of wealth is not the only barrier to health. There is also discrimination based on race, sex, religion, and gender (2).
The authors of this study present information on discrimination as it relates to chronic or persistent pain, particularly looking for a difference of pain interfering with health among women vs men. Gender-based discrimination is associated with a variety of negative health consequences such as greater stress, disability, worse mental health, lower self-esteem, and depression (3).
This study explores the possible mechanisms that produce disparities across the pain experience. The authors were interested in gender-based pain, discrimination, and the relationship with pain interference. Pain interference is defined as reflecting the “extent to which pain disrupts psychological, social, and physical aspects of daily living.” The authors hypothesised that a greater experience with daily discrimination would be associated with greater pain interference.
Clinicians must navigate the needs of their patients without adding to daily discrimination based on sex or gender.
METHODS
- This is a secondary analysis of open-source data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) national survey, an ongoing longitudinal study assessing health variables in mid to late life (4).