How are BIPOC patients under-represented in head pain research?

This video sheds light on the disparities and under-representation of BIPOC patients in the realm of head pain research.

Transcript

00:00

[MUSIC PLAYING] Hey, Dr. O'Brien, when it comes to head pain research, do you think people of color are accurately represented?

00:07

[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:14

That's an excellent question. We have so much research surrounding migraines at our disposal.

00:20

But these studies don't really represent the people who are suffering from them. Migraines have roughly the same prevalence

00:27

across racial groups in the United States. Yet somehow, migraine research is mostly conducted on white women in higher income groups.

00:36

And actually, there's little to no research at all on race-related gaps and health care inequities in head

00:42

pain disorders. Now, one group of researchers did try to take a closer look at this issue. They reviewed 16 migraine research publications

00:50

from "Neurology" in 2019. And what they found was pretty indicative of how severe a disparity we're dealing with.

00:58

Of those 16 publications, only six reported participant race. And of those six, only one used terms

01:06

beyond white and nonwhite. Where race was noted, about 75% to 97% of participants

01:13

were white. And we know this lack of diversity in migraine research isn't because there are no Indigenous or people of color migraine patients.

01:20

Researchers just aren't getting representative samples. But people of color may also just

01:27

be too hesitant to participate. Data has shown that more than one in five Native American and Alaskan Native patients

01:34

and one in three Black patients reported experiencing discrimination in a clinical setting. 20% of Latinos also reported discrimination

01:43

when visiting a clinic or seeing a doctor. All of this matters immensely as we do more research into migraine treatments.

01:50

We want to make sure that treatments work for everyone. Ultimately, our goal is to make sure that people of color

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have access to the best treatment and disease management options possible. And the first step towards that is including them in research.