Acute Pain
Volume 7, Issue 1 , Pages 21-26, May 2005

Demographic disparities in the prescription of patient-controlled analgesia for postoperative pain

  • Yenna Salamonson

      Affiliations

    • School of Nursing, Family and Community Health, College of Social and Health Sciences, University of Western Sydney, Campbelltown Campus, Building 7, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South, DC 1797, NSW, Australia
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 4620 3322; fax: +61 2 4625 4252.
    • ,
  • Bronwyn Everett

      Affiliations

    • School of Nursing, Family and Community Health, College of Social and Health Sciences, University of Western Sydney, Bankstown Campus, Building 3, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South, DC 1797, NSW, Australia
    • Tel.: +61 2 9772 6366; fax: +61 2 9773 0998.

Received 16 September 2004; accepted 18 November 2004.

Summary 

Whilst the influence of age, gender, insurance status and ethnicity on pain management has been previously reported, to our knowledge, no studies have assessed the influence of these characteristics on physicians’ decisions to prescribe intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (IV PCA) as opposed to intramuscular injection (IMI) of opioid analgesia. This retrospective audit of 115 patients undergoing abdominal surgery was conducted to determine the influence of age, gender, insurance status and patient ethnicity (Caucasian versus ethnic minority) on the prescription of PCA or IMI analgesia for postoperative pain. Logistic regression was performed to determine independent associations and the odds ratios for being prescribed PCA or IMI opioid analgesia. The results indicate that the only significant independent predictor for PCA prescription was patients’ ethnicity, with minority patients less likely to be prescribed PCA for postoperative pain management (P=0.034). This study therefore suggests that PCA prescription is influenced by patients’ ethnicity.

Keywords: Postoperative pain, Patient-controlled analgesia, Ethnicity, Opioid analgesia

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PII: S1366-0071(04)00089-0

doi:10.1016/j.acpain.2004.11.001

Acute Pain
Volume 7, Issue 1 , Pages 21-26, May 2005

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