COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Stressors, Distress, and Bodily Pain in Native Americans: Results from the Oklahoma Study of Native American Pain Risk

The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted minoritized individuals. This study examined the relationships between pandemic-related stressors/distress and bodily pain in 79 Native American (NA) and 101 non-Hispanic White (NHW) participants from the Oklahoma Study of Native American Pain Risk. Online surveys were administered in May/June 2020 (wave 1), March/April 2021 (wave 2), and Sept/Oct 2021 (wave 3). Pandemic-related stressors (e.g., resource loss and added responsibilities) and distress were assessed from a custom-built questionnaire. Bodily pain was assessed from pain items on the Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15). The results indicate NAs and NHWs reported similar pandemic-related stressors and distress at wave 1, which remained at similar levels across all waves in NHWs. By contrast, stressors and distress increased in NAs at waves 2 and 3. Moreover, bodily pain was higher in NAs than NHWs across all waves. Regression-based multilevel analyses predicting bodily pain found that NHWs with more pandemic-related stressors/distress experienced more bodily pain, but stress/distress did not predict bodily pain in NAs. Findings demonstrated that NAs experienced more bodily pain and pandemic-related stressors/distress than NHWs. However, pandemic-related stressors/distress did not further exacerbate NA pain as observed in NHWs. This implies NAs may have demonstrated resiliency that buffered the pronociceptive effects of pandemic-related stress.