skip to content
Dovepress - Open Access to Scientific and Medical Research
View our mobile site

8852

Virtual human technology: patient demographics and healthcare training factors in pain observation and treatment recommendations

Original Research

(1339) Views  (267) Full article downloads

Authors: Laura D Wandner, Lauren A Stutts, Ashraf F Alqudah, et al 

Published Date December 2010 Volume 2010:3 Pages 241 - 247
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/JPR.S14708

Laura D Wandner1, Lauren A Stutts2, Ashraf F Alqudah3, Jason G Craggs1, Cindy D Scipio4, Adam T Hirsh5, Michael E Robinson1
1Department of Clinical Health Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA; 2Spinal Cord Injury Program, Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital, Jacksonville, FL, USA; 3Department of Psychology, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan; 4Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA; 5Department of Psychology, Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, USA

Background: Patients' sex, race, and age have been found to affect others' perception of their pain. However, the influence of these characteristics on treatment recommendations from laypersons and healthcare providers is understudied.
Design: To address this issue, 75 undergraduates and 107 healthcare trainees (HTs) used a web-based delivery system to view video clips of virtual human (VH) patients presenting with different standardized levels of pain. Subjects then rated the VHs' pain intensity and recommended the amount of medical treatment the VHs should receive.
Results: Results indicated that, compared with undergraduates, HTs perceived African Americans and older adults as having less pain but were more willing to recommend medical treatment for these patients than were undergraduate participants. HTs and undergraduates rated female, African American, older, and high-pain-expressing adults as having greater pain intensity than male, Caucasian, younger, and lower-pain-expressing adults. Moreover, they also recommended that female, older, and high-pain-expressing adults receive more medical treatment than male, younger, and lower-pain-expressing adults.
Conclusions: This study found that the characteristics of the VHs and whether the participants were undergraduates or HTs influenced the ratings of pain assessment and treatment recommendations. The findings are consistent with the previous VH literature showing that VH characteristics are important cues in the perception and treatment of pain. However, this is the first study to identify differences in pain-related decisions between individuals who are pursuing healthcare careers and those who are not. Finally, not only does this study serve as further evidence for the validity and potential of VH technology but also it confirms prior research that has shown that biases regarding patient sex, race, and age can affect pain assessment and treatment.

Keywords: pain, virtual human, race, age, gender, perception






Readers of this article also read:

Yellow flag scores in a compensable New Zealand cohort suffering acute low back pain
Problems and barriers of pain management in the emergency department: Are we ever going to get better?
Pillow use: the behavior of cervical stiffness, headache and scapular/arm pain
Investigational pharmacology for low back pain
Effectiveness of the association between carbamazepine and peripheral analgesic block with ropivacaine for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia
Characterization of a rat model of metastatic prostate cancer bone pain
Topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for the treatment of pain due to soft tissue injury: diclofenac epolamine topical patch
An eight-week yoga intervention is associated with improvements in pain, psychological functioning and mindfulness, and changes in cortisol levels in women with fibromyalgia
Breathing-controlled electrical stimulation could modify the affective component of neuropathic pain after amputation: a case report
Controlled release formulation of oxycodone in patients with moderate to severe chronic osteoarthritis: a critical review of the literature