R E S E A R C H R E P O R T Patterns of Pain Descriptor Usage in African Americans and European Americans With Chronic Pain JEFFREY E. CASSISI MASATAKA UMEDA Jackson State University JULIE A. DEISINGER Saint Xavier University CHRISTINE SHEFFER Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care KENNETH R. LOFLAND Pain and Rehabilitation Clinic of Chicago CHERYL JACKSON Jackson State University This study examined ethnic differences in the use of pain descriptors, comparing stan- dardized pain assessment data from African American and European American pa- tients with heterogeneous chronic pain syndromes. The measure was the Short-Form Mc- Gill Pain Questionnaire (SF–MPQ) including the embedded Visual Analog Scale (VAS). Exploratory factor analyses of SF–MPQ data identified differences in factor structure with the VAS loading on a different factor for each group. A 5-factor solution was obtained from the African American group and a 4-factor solution was obtained from the European American group. There was little overlap in the pattern matrices for African American and European American groups. Results suggest that the VAS is as sensitive to ethnic differences as other traditional pain measures. • Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire • Visual Analog Scale • African Americans • European Americans • exploratory factor analysis • Jeffrey E. Cassisi, Masataka Umeda, and Cheryl Jackson, Department of Psychology, Jackson State University; Julie A. Deisinger, Department of Psychology, Saint Xavier University; Christine Shef- fer, Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, Little Rock, Arkansas; Kenneth R. Lofland, Pain and Rehabilitation Clinic of Chicago. Cheryl Jackson was supported by the Ronald E. McNair undergraduate scholarship program during the conduct of this study. We wish to express our gratitude to Gail Elizabeth Wyatt for her editorial assistance, guidance, and advice during the writing of this article. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jeffrey E. Cassisi, Department of Psychology, Jackson State University, P.O. Box 17550, Jackson, MS 39217-0350. E-mail: cassisi@worldnet.att.net Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology Copyright 2004 by the Educational Publishing Foundation Vol. 10, No. 1, 81–89 1099-9809/04/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/1099-9809.10.1.81 81