Income/Socioeconomic Status
Three studies in this analysis [3,13,14] found that income and socioeconomic status were significant predictors of analgesic adherence for cancer pain. In a comparison between African Americans and whites, income was the strongest predictor of analgesic adherence for cancer pain in African Americans [13]; specifically, individuals with a household income of less than $10,000 a year had a 41.83% lower percentage of dose adherence. Among whites, income did not have a significant correlation with analgesic rates [13].
A pilot study and larger definitive study [3,14] were conducted to compare the effects of prescription benefits. The prescription benefits included were Medicaid and self-pay/charity care. Through comparison, none of the Medicaid patients reported financial barriers but the self-pay/charity care patients were more likely to report financial barriers to adherence [3]. In the larger study, the findings indicated that there was significant association of adherence by benefits and race/ethnicity. As mentioned above, benefits were a dominant predictor of long acting opiate use and further adherence [14].
Gender
Apart from ethnicity or race as a variable associated with adherence, association of analgesic adherence and gender were observed in 4 studies [3,13–15] and evaluated in 2 studies. One study [4] found that a patient’s gender and education level did not correlate with adherence rates. However, in another study [12] men were more likely to deviate from the prescribed dose. Overall, within the entire cohort [12] men and minority patients were most likely to deviate from the prescribed dosing regimen in comparison to all other patient demographic factors.
Attitudes and Barriers
Five of the 7 studies investigated perceived barriers to analgesic adherence [3,4,13,15,16]. Four used the Barriers Questionnaire II (BQ-II) [18] to further understand patients’ beliefs about cancer pain management [3,12,13,15]. Using this validated tool, 1 study found that non-white individuals had higher scores on the BQ-II than white patients [12]. Within the non-white group in the above study, the mean score on the BQ-II for African Americans was 1.76 (± 0.81) and the mean score for “other” was 2.16 (± 0.93) [12]. Further, low MMAS scores were significantly associated with higher BQ-II scores. Similarly, higher BQ-II scores correlated with opioid deviation toward higher than prescribed dose [12].
Another study with a primarily African-American cohort did not use the BQ-II but asked specific questions in regards to perceived barriers to analgesics. Within the cohort, 87% reported a fear of addiction to pain medicine. Further, 77% had a fear of injection, 75% were concerned about a tolerance for analgesics, and side effects were a major concern. Overall, nausea was the greatest reported concern followed by potential for confusion, which was negatively associated with taking analgesics. Distracting the doctor from curing their illness was a predictor of improved adherence; however, individuals were more likely to take Tylenol for pain relief. Similarly, no significant barrier items affected adherence to NSAIDs. In relation to step 2 opioids, patients who felt it was important to be strong by not talking about pain were more likely to have better adherence [4]. Similar results with African Americans were identified in another study [13]. In the comparison between African Americans and whites, African Americans had more subjective barriers compared to whites. Particularly for African Americans, each unit increase in concern about distracting the doctor from curing the disease, the percentage of dose adherence decreased by 7.44 [13].