Pain, Racial Discrimination, and Depressive Symptoms among African American Women.
Janiece L Walker Taylor, Claudia M Campbell, Roland J Thorpe and 3 others
PMID 29422125WHAT IT FOUND
In African American women with osteoarthritis, racial discrimination was linked to higher pain scores, and depressive symptoms were linked to both discrimination and pain.
Key findings
01Racial discrimination was associated with pain intensity after controlling for BMI, years of education, and length of time with osteoarthritis.
02Depressive symptoms were associated with racial discrimination and with pain intensity, and when depressive symptoms were included in the model, racial discrimination was no longer significantly associated with pain intensity.
03The indirect effect of racial discrimination on pain through depressive symptoms was statistically significant.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that racial discrimination causes depressive symptoms or pain, or that depression causes pain. Participants were recruited by convenience sampling and were African American women aged 50 to 80 years with osteoarthritis living in the Southwest United States, so the results may not apply to other groups. Pain, depression, and racial discrimination were all self-reported, and osteoarthritis diagnosis was self-reported. The women's symptoms may have been related to other chronic conditions, because the study did not screen for those conditions. The study did not examine physical function or any treatment effect.
Declared interests
The supplied publication types list NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support; no author conflict-of-interest statement is provided in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that reducing racial discrimination or treating depression will lower pain. This was a cross-sectional survey, so it shows associations, not cause and effect.