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Exploring Pain Management Among Asian Immigrants with Chronic Pain: Self-Management and Resilience

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Abstract

Asians immigrants (AIs) are one of the fastest growing racial groups in many countries globally. Despite pain prevalence, studies on chronic pain management among AIs is limited in the literature. An integrative review was conducted exploring the current state of science on chronic pain management among AIs. Several databases were used to identify related articles and 15 studies met the inclusion criteria. Two major themes emerged: (a) self-management, pertaining to how AIs take responsibility for their pain, and (b) resilience, their adaptive behaviors indicating low levels of pain-related dysfunction and burden despite chronic pain severity. Resilience plays a significant role in the mechanism by which self-management works in pain among AIs. Chronic pain management is a complex process where challenges to effective treatments exist. Findings have significant implications to healthcare providers and the general pain population. Future research directions include the necessity for increased participation of AIs in studies.

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Funding

This study was partly funded by the Health for Nevada Award.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing, University of Nevada, 4505 S Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV, 89154-3018, USA

    Jennifer Kawi & Andrew Thomas Reyes

  2. Department of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA

    Rogelio A. Arenas

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  1. Jennifer Kawi
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  2. Andrew Thomas Reyes
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  3. Rogelio A. Arenas
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Correspondence to Jennifer Kawi.

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Conflict of Interest

Jennifer Kawi received the Health for Nevada Award from University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Andrew Thomas Reyes and Rogelio A. Arenas declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Kawi, J., Reyes, A.T. & Arenas, R.A. Exploring Pain Management Among Asian Immigrants with Chronic Pain: Self-Management and Resilience. J Immigrant Minority Health 21, 1123–1136 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-018-0820-8

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