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Joshua H. Tamayo-Sarver, PhD, Susan W. Hinze, PhD, Rita K. Cydulka, MD, MS and David W. Baker, MD, MPH

Joshua H. Tamayo-Sarver is with the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio. Susan W. Hinze is with the Department of Sociology, Case Western Reserve University. Rita K. Cydulka is with the Department of Emergency Medicine, MetroHealth Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. David W. Baker is with the Division of General Internal Medicine, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois.

Correspondence: Correspondence should be sent to Joshua H. Tamayo-Sarver, 4009 Cullen Drive, Cleveland, OH 44105 (e-mail: sarver{at}po.cwru.edu).

Objectives. We examined racial and ethnic disparities in analgesic prescription among a national sample of emergency department patients.

Methods. We analyzed Black, Latino, and White patients in the 1997–1999 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys to compare prescription of any analgesics and opioid analgesics by race/ethnicity.

Results. For any analgesic, no association was found between race and prescription; opioids, however, were less likely to be prescribed to Blacks than to Whites with migraines and back pain, though race was not significant for patients with long bone fracture. Differences in opioid use between Latinos and Whites with the same conditions were less and nonsignificant.

Conclusions. Physicians were less likely to prescribe opioids to Blacks; this disparity appears greatest for conditions with fewer objective findings (e.g., migraine).

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