Limited English proficiency is associated with less adequate perioperative pain management

Narrative synthesis #

The review flags perioperative pain management as an underexplored outcome with limited but directionally consistent data: 1 study found patients with LEP were less likely to receive a discharge opioid prescription (and, when prescribed, a lower oral morphine equivalent), and a second found LEP general-surgical patients had significantly lower median pain scores recorded during admission. The review cautions that only a small number of studies examined pain management. Certainty/GRADE appraisal is left for expert review.

"A single study in our review evaluated the association between LEP and receipt of a discharge opioid prescription after surgical care, finding that patients with LEP were less likely to receive a discharge opioid prescription, and even if they did, the oral morphine equivalent amount was lower for patients with LEP than English proficiency. One other study found general surgical patients with LEP had significantly lower median pain scores recorded during their admission than patients with English proficiency." (Joo, 2023, p. 8)

Reviewer note (probable-merge): relates to existing corpus CLMs "Hospitalized patients with limited English proficiency receive less numeric pain assessment and fewer opioids than English-speaking patients" and "Children of LEP parents receive less adequate postoperative pain assessment and opioid analgesia than children of EP parents." Human to adjudicate merge vs distinct.