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Research shows that ethnic minorities are less likely than other people to receive opioid analgesics for acutely painful conditions. To determine whether a sex disparity exists in the administration of pain medication for acute abdominal pain, these authors conducted a secondary analysis of data from a prospective cohort study in adult patients who presented to a single emergency department with non–pregnancy-related abdominal pain of less than 72 hours' duration.
Among 981 patients (65% women), men and women had similar mean pain scores. Women were less likely than men to receive any analgesia (60% vs. 67%) and opioids (45% vs. 56%). In logistic regression analysis that controlled for potential confounders, women were 13% to 25% less likely…