title: Race, ethnicity, and analgesia provision at discharge among children with long-bone fractures requiring emergency care.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Inadequate treatment of painful conditions in children is a significant and complex problem. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of race/ethnicity on the provision of analgesic medicines at discharge in children treated emergently for a long-bone fracture.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective review of all patients during a 1-year period with a long-bone fracture treated in 2 urban pediatric emergency departments was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eight hundred seventy-eight patients who met our inclusion criteria were identified. Sixty percent of patients received a prescription for an opioid-containing medicine, and 19% received a prescription for an over-the-counter analgesic medicine at emergency department discharge. Patients identified as African American, non-Hispanic, biracial, and Hispanic/Latino had significantly lower rates of opioid analgesic prescriptions when compared with other ethnic groups. White, non-Hispanic patients had lower rates of over-the-counter analgesic medicine prescriptions provided at discharge. Patients identified as white, non-Hispanic had a higher percentage of fractures that required reduction in the emergency department when compared with other ethnic groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Race/ethnicity is associated with different analgesic prescription patterns in children treated in the emergency department for a long-bone fracture.
authors.affiliation: Emergency Services, Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. Henry.ortega@childrensmn.org
authors.forename: Henry W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Ortega
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vander Velden
authors.forename: Chia-Wei
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reid
mesh_terms: D000698:Analgesia / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D050723:Fractures, Bone / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000208:ethnology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D044469:Racial Groups; D012189:Retrospective Studies