No abstract

Health care providers must consider how the intersectionality of social identities related to ethnoculture, social class, migration status, and gender can factor into the creation and maintenance of chronic pain disparities. A greater, more thoughtful incorporation of intersectionality in chronic pain research and clinical practice will ensure that pain management approaches are designed and applied in a way that reflects the social context of affected communities and individuals from those communities.

Objective. To explore the ethnocultural influences on the chronic pain experience in three culturally and linguistically diverse communities in Australia. Methods. Six focus groups were conducted with 34 women and 7 men (ages 36–74 years) who self-identified as Mandaean, Assyrian or Vietnamese. A purposive sample of community-dwelling adults living with chronic pain (daily pain >3 months) was recruited from community organizations. Participants were asked broadly about the meanings of chronic pain, acceptance, ethnocultural community expectations and approaches to pain management. A standardized interview collected sociodemographic and symptom data for descriptive purposes. Results. Inductive thematic analysis yielded a multidimensional web of themes interrelated with the pain experience. Themes of ethnocultural identity and migrant status were intertwined in the unique explanatory model of pain communicated for each community. The explanatory model for conceptualizing pain, namely biopsychosocial, biomedical or a traditional Eastern model, framed participants’ approaches to health seeking and pain management. Conclusions. Chronic pain is theoretically conceptualized and experienced in diverse ways by migrant communities. Knowledge of cultural beliefs and values, alongside migration circumstances, may help providers deliver health care that is culturally responsive and thereby improve outcomes for migrant communities with chronic pain.