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Study: Blacks and Hispanics receive less pain meds in ED

Quality Improvement Monitor, January 4, 2008

Blacks and Hispanics who go to hospital emergency departments in pain are significantly less likely than whites to get pain-relieving opioid drugs, according to a new study funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The study, which analyzed treatments for more than 150,000 pain-related visits to U.S. hospitals between 1993 and 2005, found 23% of blacks and 24% of Hispanics received opioids compared with 31% of whites. Twenty-eight percent of Asians and other groups received opioids, according to a press release from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

"This study provides a particularly compelling reminder that treatment disparities persist among racial and ethnic groups," Carolyn M. Clancy, MD, the director of AHRQ, said in the press release. "We have a lot of work to do before high-quality healthcare is available to everyone."

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