Trends in Racial Inequalities in the Administration of Opioid and Non-opioid Pain Medication in US Emergency Departments Across 1999–2020

Despite initiatives to eradicate racial inequalities in pain treatment, there is no clear picture on whether this has translated to changes in clinical practice.

To determine whether racial disparities in the receipt of pain medication in the emergency department have diminished over a 22-year period from 1999 to 2020.

We used data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, an annual, cross-sectional probability sample of visits to emergency departments of non-federal general and short-stay hospitals in the USA.

Pain-related visits to the ED by Black or White patients.

Prescriptions for opioid and non-opioid analgesics.

A total of 203,854 of all sampled 625,433 ED visits (35%) by Black or White patients were pain-related, translating to a population-weighted estimate of over 42 million actual visits to US emergency departments for pain annually across 1999–2020. Relative risk regression found visits by White patients were 1.26 (95% CI, 1.22–1.30; p<0.001) times more likely to result in an opioid prescription for pain compared to Black patients (40% vs. 32%). Visits by Black patients were also 1.25 (95% CI, 1.21–1.30; p<0.001) times more likely to result in non-opioid analgesics only being prescribed. Results were not substantively altered after adjusting for insurance status, type and severity of pain, geographical region, and other potential confounders. Spline regression found no evidence of meaningful change in the magnitude of racial disparities in prescribed pain medication over 22 years.

Initiatives to create equitable healthcare do not appear to have resulted in meaningful alleviation of racial disparities in pain treatment in the emergency department.