From birth until death: how the ethnicity pain gap follows people through life (The Guardian, 2 July 2026)

Summary

A growing body of global research has shown that patients from minority ethnic backgrounds are less likely to have their pain recognised, believed and adequately treated – with disparities experienced from childhood all the way through to end-of-life care.

Evidence suggests these disparities persist across multiple healthcare settings, including emergency care, maternity services, and cancer treatment. Study after study from different countries has found that patients from minority ethnic backgrounds are frequently required to demonstrate higher levels of pain before receiving treatment, and are often given less effective treatment even when their pain is acknowledged.

Even within childhood, those from minority ethnic backgrounds are likely to experience their pain being minimised, while receiving inadequate treatment compared with their white counterparts.

A 2024 study by academics at the University of Delaware aimed to investigate whether racial bias affects how people see and interpret children’s pain, and whether this may influence how much treatment they believe a child should receive.

The study consisted of participants viewing computer-generated images of children’s faces from different ethnicities showing increasing levels of pain.

Pain was less readily perceived on the faces of black boys compared with their white counterparts, with participants needing to see stronger expressions of pain by black boys before recognising it. The authors argued that their study demonstrated strong evidence for racial bias in paediatric pain perception. Furthermore, participants who were less likely to perceive pain in black children were also less likely to recommend pain treatment for them.