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HomeHealthNative American participants wanted for TU research study on chronic pain

Native American participants wanted for TU research study on chronic pain

Joanna (Mashunkashey) Shadlow, a co-investigator on the project, said she hopes the project findings bring possible implications for policy decisions to address disparities and issues that may be contributing to chronic pain among Native Americans

TULSA, Okla. – Starting in February 2023, researchers at the University of Tulsa are launching a study using Native American participants with hopes of determining why Native people are at greater risk for chronic pain.

The research project is a continuation of prior TU studies looking at pain inequity among Native Americans. Calls for participants in the current project is now starting. Research participants must be adults age 18 and older, identify as Native American, must be generally healthy and not experiencing chronic or persistent pain.

Selected participants will have four in-person visits at the TU campus for research activities, as well as interviews in a process that could be 3-5 hours each day. They will be paid a stipend for completing all four visits and have nearby lodging covered if traveling from outside Tulsa. 

The narrative for the project reads: “Native Americans experience higher rates of chronic pain than the general US population, yet the mechanisms for this pain disparity are poorly understood. This study proposes that exposure to environmental racism (a form of structural racism and discrimination) increases psychological stress, heightens somatic threat sensitivity, and increases allostatic load to produce a unique Native American pain risk phenotype (‘silent’ spinal sensitization, i.e., sensitization of spinal pain neurons that does not result in sensitization of pain experience). Results from this study will help inform public policies, as well as identify mechanistic targets for interventions, to reduce the Native American pain disparity.”  

Working on the project is Jamie Rhudy, a licensed clinical psychologist and professor in the TU Department of Psychology, as the primary investigator on the project. Joanna (Mashunkashey) Shadlow (Osage) is a psychology professor at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa and previously worked on prior research with Rhudy while also working at TU and will also be a co-investigator on this project.

From left: TU Associate Professor Travis Lowe, TU Psychology Professor Jamie Rhudy, and OSU-Tulsa Professor of Psychology Joanne Shadlow. ECHO REED/Osage News

Travis Lowe, TU associate professor of sociology, is also joining the project as a co-investigator and said he will be “looking at the ways we can measure structural racism and discrimination.”

Rhudy said the continuing project is funded by a National Institutes of Health $514,891 grant for the first year for research on Native American pain inequity. According to an article by TU, the project, known as the Oklahoma Study of Native American Pain Risk (OK-SNAP), continues the professor’s previous study, which proposed that Native Americans experience chronic pain at higher levels than any other ethnic group in the United States. Rhudy’s prior investigation confirmed this suggestion and found that Native Americans develop chronic pain at nearly three times the rate of non-Hispanic whites.

Shadlow said Oklahoma is a great location to conduct the first-of-its-kind study on chronic pain in Native Americans due to its diverse population with 39 federally recognized tribal nations in the state. She said outreach efforts to visit tribal communities across the state will also take place to inform people of the study and to start recruiting prospective participants.

In taking the research project forward, Rhudy said the study will also look at participants’ stress factors, which includes interview questions touching on their home environments, as well as stressors. “They’ll come into the lab for four days to help us understand these questions,” Shadlow said, adding the grant resources will be used to pay for the participant stipends and lodging during the four days.

A technician watches the screen for the participant’s responses to the study. ECHO REED/Osage News

During the TU lab visits, participants will be interviewed and go through a series of tasks to see how people respond to pain. Rhudy said the interviews will be transcribed and participants will also take stress tests, which include tasks such as giving a speech to experimenters and mental math tasks. 

Rhudy said participants will also have relaxation activities including watching neutral TV show material and read magazines. There will also be follow-up visits with the participants every six months as part of data collecting, Rhudy said.

After the study data is analyzed, Rhudy and Shadlow said the intent is to disseminate the findings to both the scientific community, as well as respective Native American communities.

Shadlow said she hopes the project findings bring possible implications for policy decisions to address disparities and issues that may be contributing to chronic pain among Native Americans.

For more information on the research project, individuals can call (918) 631-2175 or (918) 631-3565 or email utulsa.plan@gmail.com

Author

  • Benny Polacca

    Title: Senior Reporter

    Email: bpolacca@osagenation-nsn.gov

    Instagram: @bpolacca

    Topic Expertise: Government, Tribal Government, Community

    Languages spoken: English, basic knowledge of Spanish and French

    Benny Polacca (Hopi/ Havasupai/ Pima/ Tohono O’odham) started working at the Osage News in 2009 as a reporter in Pawhuska, Okla., where he’s covered various stories and events that impact the Osage Nation and Osage people. Those newspaper contributions cover a broad spectrum of topics and issues from tribal government matters to features. As a result, Polacca has gained an immeasurable amount of experience in covering Native American affairs, government issues and features so the Osage readership can be better informed about the tribal current affairs the newspaper covers.

    Polacca is part of the Osage News team that was awarded the Native American Journalists Association's Elias Boudinet Free Press Award in 2014 and has won numerous NAJA media awards, as well as awards from the Oklahoma Press Association and SPJ Oklahoma Pro Chapter, for storytelling coverage and photography.

    Polacca earned his bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University and also participated in the former American Indian Journalism Institute at the University of South Dakota where he was introduced to the basics of journalism and worked with seasoned journalists there and later at The Forum daily newspaper covering the Fargo, N.D. area where he worked as the weeknight reporter.

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Benny Polacca
Benny Polaccahttps://osagenews.org

Title: Senior Reporter

Email: bpolacca@osagenation-nsn.gov

Instagram: @bpolacca

Topic Expertise: Government, Tribal Government, Community

Languages spoken: English, basic knowledge of Spanish and French

Benny Polacca (Hopi/ Havasupai/ Pima/ Tohono O’odham) started working at the Osage News in 2009 as a reporter in Pawhuska, Okla., where he’s covered various stories and events that impact the Osage Nation and Osage people. Those newspaper contributions cover a broad spectrum of topics and issues from tribal government matters to features. As a result, Polacca has gained an immeasurable amount of experience in covering Native American affairs, government issues and features so the Osage readership can be better informed about the tribal current affairs the newspaper covers.

Polacca is part of the Osage News team that was awarded the Native American Journalists Association's Elias Boudinet Free Press Award in 2014 and has won numerous NAJA media awards, as well as awards from the Oklahoma Press Association and SPJ Oklahoma Pro Chapter, for storytelling coverage and photography.

Polacca earned his bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University and also participated in the former American Indian Journalism Institute at the University of South Dakota where he was introduced to the basics of journalism and worked with seasoned journalists there and later at The Forum daily newspaper covering the Fargo, N.D. area where he worked as the weeknight reporter.

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