Beliefs about appropriate pain behaviour: gender differences between health care professionals and non-health care professionals in Hong Kong.

Aims: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of participants' gender on their beliefs regarding gender-appropriate pain behaviour among health care professionals and non-health care professionals.

Background: Gender may influence beliefs about appropriate pain behaviour among health care professionals and non-health care professionals.

Methods: The study consisted of a survey of 152 participants, 38 male and 38 female health care professionals and 38 male and 38 female non-health care professionals. Each participant completed both questionnaires, the Appropriate Pain Behaviour Questionnaire-Female (APBQ-F) and Appropriate Pain Behaviour Questionnaire-Male (APBQ-M).

Results: Occupation had a significant effect: the health care professionals rated pain behaviours as more acceptable in both genders than the non-health care professionals, F(1, 148) = 13.636, p < 0.01. Gender also had a significant effect: female participants considered pain behaviours more acceptable than male participants, F(1, 148) = 5.056, p < 0.026. There was a significant effect between APBQ-M and APBQ-F: for both genders in both occupations, pain behaviours in women were rated as more acceptable than in men, F(1, 148) = 105.469, p < 0.005.

Conclusions: Health care professionals would consider overt pain-related behaviours by both men and women to be more acceptable than non-health care professionals. Both genders and both occupations would consider overt pain-related behaviours to be more acceptable in women than in men.

Relevance To Clinical Practice: Health care professionals need to be aware that their attitude to pain behaviours may influence their management of patients and that different genders experience pain differently. This has clear implications in terms of clinical treatment and diagnosis.