• Megan M Miller, Ashley Allison, Zina Trost, Lies De Ruddere, Tori Wheelis, Liesbet Goubert, and Adam T Hirsh.
• Department of Psychology, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana.
• J Pain. 2018 Jan 1; 19 (1): 57-66.

AbstractCompared with men, women report more pain and are at increased risk for having pain discounted or misattributed to psychological causes. Overweight individuals experience high rates of pain and may receive suboptimal care because of provider bias. Research suggests the social consequences of being overweight are worse for women than men, and that gender and weight uniquely and interactively affect pain experience and care. Healthy participants (n = 616) viewed 6 videos of back pain patients (1 female and 1 male of normal weight, overweight, and obese categories) performing a functional task. Participants provided judgements/ratings regarding patient pain (intensity, interference, exaggeration), potential sources of patient pain (medical, psychological), and treatment recommendations (opioids, psychological therapy, seek workplace accommodations). Results suggest that the pain of normal and overweight women and obese men was discounted (judged as less intense, less interfering, more exaggerated, and less attributable to medical factors) and judged as less in need of treatment (treated with less opioids and workplace accommodations). Across all weight categories, women's pain was attributed more to psychological factors and was more likely to receive recommendations for psychological therapy than men's pain. These findings highlight the differential effect of patient weight on pain-related judgements about women and men.Copyright © 2017 The American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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