Postoperative Pain Management Among Native and Non-native Israeli Citizens—Data From the European PAIN-OUT Registry

Purpose: It has been widely reported that minority groups receive inferior emergency pain management. We aimed to determine whether this is true in the postoperative setting, as effective postoperative analgesia is an essential component of high quality medical care. Design: A retrospective case-control study of paired 248 postsurgical Israeli patients. Methods: Data were gathered from the European Union's “PAIN-OUT” registry. Quality of care measures, composite pain score, composite side effect score, and composite emotional score were analyzed. Findings: Composite pain, side effect, and emotional scores were significantly higher among natives compared with non-natives. Opioid consumption did not differ between the two groups. Conclusions: In this study, immigration status was not a predictor of inferior postoperative analgesia. In contrast, non-natives benefited more from analgesic care. We suggest this stems from differing patient expectations and attitudes toward pain management between the groups, with higher expectations for analgesia on the part of native patients accounting for these observations.