Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Human Factors
Date Submitted: Aug 25, 2022
Open Peer Review Period: Aug 25, 2022 - Oct 20, 2022
Date Accepted: Nov 8, 2022
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Exploring the Cross-Cultural Acceptability of Digital Tools for Pain Self-reporting: A Qualitative Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Culture and ethnicity influence how people communicate about their pain. This makes it challenging to develop pain self-report tools that are acceptable across ethnic groups.
Objective:
We aimed to inform the development of cross-culturally acceptable digital pain self-report tools by better understanding similarities and differences between ethnic groups in pain experiences and self-reporting needs.
Methods:
Three online workshops, consisting of a focus group and a user requirement exercise, with people who self-identified as being of black African (n=6), Southeast Asian (n=10), or white British (n=7) ethnicity were conducted.
Results:
Across ethnic groups, participants shared similar lived experiences and challenges in communicating their pain to healthcare professionals. However, there were differences in beliefs about the causes of pain, attitudes towards pain medication, and experiences of how stigma and gender norms influenced pain reporting behaviour. Despite these differences, they agreed on important aspects for pain self-report, but participants from non-white backgrounds had additional language requirements, such as culturally appropriate pain terminologies, to reduce self-reporting barriers.
Conclusions:
To improve the cross-cultural acceptability and equity of digital pain self-report tools, future developments should address these differences between ethnic groups in pain perceptions and beliefs, factors influencing pain reporting behaviour, and language requirements.
Citation
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