The Impact of Structural Racism and Discrimination (SRD) on Mechanisms of the Native American Pain Disparity
Overview
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Intervention
- Not specified
- Conditions
- Discrimination, Racial
- Sponsor
- University of Oklahoma
- Enrollment
- 220
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Pain inhibition
- Status
- Recruiting
- Last Updated
- last year
Overview
Brief Summary
The goal of this observational study is to learn about the relationship between environmental structural racism and discrimination and chronic pain risk in Native American adults. The main questions it aims to answer are:
- How does environmental structural racism and discrimination affect chronic pain-promoting mechanisms in Native Americans?
- What psychosocial factors buffer the negative effects of environmental structural racism and discrimination on chronic pain-promoting mechanisms?
Detailed Description
Native Americans experience higher rates of chronic pain than the general U.S. population, and previous research has shown that pain-free Native Americans transition to chronic pain at almost three times the rate of non-Hispanic Whites. Yet, little is known about the mechanisms that contribute to this pain disparity. This study aims to better understand the role of environmental and society-wide stressors, like structural racism and discrimination, in contributing to this pain disparity. It is believed that these environmental and social stressors may contribute to chronic pain risk by increasing an individual's mental and physical stress levels. In turn, increased stress may alter how an individual responds to pain, both physically and emotionally, which may place them at greater risk for developing chronic pain in the future.
Investigators
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- •Self-identify as Native American/American Indian
Exclusion Criteria
- •\<18 years of age
- •Self-reported history of cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, musculoskeletal, or neurological disorders
- •Surrent chronic pain, defined as persistent, bothersome pain on more days than not for at least 3 months)
- •Self-reported current substance dependence
- •Sse of medication that could interfere with testing (e.g., recent use of analgesics, antidepressants, or anti-anxiety medications)
- •Inability to speak English
- •Current psychosis (assessed by Psychosis Screening Questionnaire)
- •Serious cognitive impairment (assessed by \<20 score on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment \[MoCA\])
- •Possible peripheral neuropathy (assessed by nerve conduction study)
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Pain inhibition
Time Frame: baseline
Pain inhibition will be assessed using a conditioned pain modulation task with cold water as the conditioning stimulus and electric stimulations as the test stimulus.
Allostatic load
Time Frame: baseline
A single latent variable for allostatic load will be created using principal components analysis to combine cardiovascular (i.e., resting blood pressure and heart rate, stress-evoked blood pressure and heart rate, and a fasting lipids profile \[HDL, LDL total cholesterol, and triglycerides\]), metabolic (i.e., BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, HbA1c), neuroendocrine (i.e., diurnal salivary cortisol, stress-evoked salivary cortisol), immune (i.e., hs-CRP), and parasympathetic (i.e., resting heart rate variability) variables.
Inhibition of pain-related spinal reflex
Time Frame: baseline
Pain-related spinal reflex inhibition assessed from electromyogram will be assessed using a conditioned pain modulation task with cold water as the conditioning stimulus and electric stimulations as the test stimulus.
Inhibition of pain-evoked cortical potentials
Time Frame: baseline
Inhibition of pain-evoked cortical potentials from electroencephalography will be assessed using a conditioned pain modulation task with cold water as the conditioning stimulus and electric stimulations as the test stimulus.
Psychological stress
Time Frame: baseline
A single latent variable measuring psychological stress will be created using principal components analysis to combine scores from three self-report questionnaires: the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Global Distress Index of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), and the PTSD Checklist-Civilian (PCL-C).
Somatic threat sensitivity
Time Frame: baseline
A single latent variable measuring somatic threat sensitivity will be created using principal components analysis to combine scores from the Pain Catastrophizing Scale and a pain-related anxiety visual analog scale.
Environmental structural racism and discrimination
Time Frame: baseline
An index comprised of 11 environmental justice variables from the Environmental Protection Agency's publicly available Environmental Screening and Mapping Tool (EJSCREEN) will be created for each participant at the 2010 Census Block Group level. The 11 variables will be combined into a single index using principal components analysis.
Cultural connectedness
Time Frame: baseline
A single latent variable of cultural connectedness will be created using principal components analysis to combine scores from five self-report scales: the Cultural Connectedness Scale, the Community Mastery Scale, the Vancouver Index of Acculturation, the American Indian Enculturation Scale, and the Native American Spirituality Scale
Secondary Outcomes
- Temporal summation of spinal nociception(baseline)
- Pain tolerance(basline)
- Temporal summation of pain(baseline)