The Pain Experience of Hispanic Americans: A Critical Literature Review and Conceptual Model

Abstract

Although the Hispanic population is a burgeoning ethnic group in the United States, little is known about their pain-related experience. To address this gap, we critically reviewed the existing literature on pain experience and management among Hispanic Americans (HAs). We focused our review on the literature on nonmalignant pain, pain behaviors, and pain treatment seeking among HAs. Pain management experiences were examined from HA patients' and health care providers' perspectives. Our literature search included variations of the term "Hispanic" with "AND pain" in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and PsycINFO databases. A total of 117 studies met our inclusion criteria. We organized the results into a conceptual model with separate categories for biological and/or psychological and sociocultural and/or systems-level influences on HAs' pain experience, response to pain, and seeking and receiving pain care. We also included information on health care providers' experience of treating HA patients with pain. For each category, we identified future areas of research. We conclude with a discussion of limitations and clinical implications.

Perspective: In this critical review of the literature we examined the pain and management experiences of the HA population. We propose a conceptual model, which highlights findings from the existing literature and future areas of research.

Keywords: Hispanic Americans; critical review; ethnic differences; non-malignant pain; pain disparities; pain management.

Copyright © 2016 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Figures

Figure 1

Conceptual model of the pain experience of Hispanic Americans A conceptual model of Hispanic Americans’ (HAs’) pain experience integrating biological, psychological, sociocultural, and systems-level influences at the level of interaction between a HA in pain and healthcare providers. Items inside of arrows are organized by quality and level of evidence. Text in italics indicates a proposed future research direction. (Adapted with kind permission from Craig, 2009, Fig 1, p.24).