“We do not stop being Indigenous when we are in pain”: An integrative review of the lived experiences of chronic pain among Indigenous peoples

Background

Chronic non-cancer pain is a major burden worldwide. Indigenous communities experience additional inequities in pain care and management influenced by long-standing impacts of colonization, including systemic racism, oppression, and marginalization. Traditional healing knowledges, practices and methods are valued by Indigenous people when managing their pain. However, mainstream health services often disregard this knowledge and fail to provide culturally safe management strategies.

Aim

To understand how Indigenous peoples across the globe make sense of pain when experiencing chronic non-cancer pain.

Methodology and methods

This integrative literature review is reported according to the PRISMA checklist and CONSIDER statement. We focused on qualitative data reported by Indigenous adults with chronic non-cancer pain in empirical and theoretical studies. Electronic searches were performed in databases from health and humanities scopes, in addition to grey literature, from 1990 to August 2023. We drew from critical theory approaches to thematically analyze data from the included studies, privileging Indigenous perspectives through a Western intellectual framework (Two-Eyed Seeing epistemology). Data extraction and thematic analysis were managed using NVivo. Primary data were mapped according to geography and theoretical framework.

Results

After removal of duplicates, 1352 studies were screened using title and abstract, from which 99 full texts were assessed and 29 studies and 3 dissertations/theses were included. Included studies reported lived experiences of chronic pain among Indigenous peoples from Oceania, North America, and South America. Thematic analysis derived four main themes that indicated pain is entwined with nature, Indigenous identity, historical trauma, and the collective. Our findings suggest that pain is interconnected to a broader scenario of feelings, thoughts, peoples and places.

Conclusion

Our findings highlight the layered and complex aspects of the lived experiences of chronic pain among Indigenous people. Indigenous-led alternatives focusing on culturally safe care can guide approaches to clinical pain practice and contribute to achieving health equity.