Pain and Ethnicity in Athletes

***Note: Figures may be missing for this format of the document ***Note: Footnotes and endnotes indicated with parentheses The purpose of this investigation was to determine the relationship between ethnicity and acute pain response in male athletes. Subjects included 93 male athletes (age = 18.65 ±.58 years) of differing ethnicity. Each subject performed a Cold Pressor Test (CPT) and was evaluated for pain threshold and pain tolerance times. Two one-way analyses of variance were performed to analyze the data. The results indicated that significant differences existed in pain tolerance times between ethnic groups (p<.05). However, no differences were observed in pain threshold times. These findings support the existence of a difference in pain tolerance between ethnic groups in collegiate athletes. Article: Although pain is a physiological response, an individual's pain perception has been related to psychological, social, cultural, and ethnic factors (9). The sensation of pain and its secondary dysfunction are primary reasons athletes seek treatment from sports medicine practitioners. T