Grace Czarnecki, Christina Magallanes, Marissa Anaya, Remel Matthew Legaspi, Jenna Nunnally, & Dr. Thomas Clobes
The topic of the study is to see how opioid dosage for adults with pain varies between Latinos and whites among non-cannabis and cannabis users. We are going to observe the difference in prescribed opioid dosage between two demographic groups using the Emergency room quantitative data surveys provided by Dr. Clobes. The background would be focused on Latinos and Whites with their use of cannabis. With the quantitative data survey provided by Dr. Clobes, the medical diagnosis would determine whether the subjects benefited from the use of cannabis compared to non-cannabis users. Some considerations to take note of would be the type of pain each user is experiencing. Theoretically, the use of cannabis should nullify some symptoms (e.g. chest pain, abdominal pain, etc.), but results may differ depending on the user, and whether it was combined with another opioid. Our research question is “How does opioid dosage for adults with pain vary between Latinos and whites among non-cannabis users and cannabis users?” By analyzing such data, we will be able to determine the differences in each racial group and consider why such differences occur. This will allow us to have more of a better understanding of the variety of different opioid dosages between individuals in each racial group. By using a two-way ANOVA test, we will determine how race and use of cannabis products change a person’s prescribed opioid dosage. The two independent variables for our research project are race and cannabis usage, and the dependent variable is the dose of opioids prescribed. We presume that our findings on the correlation of opioid dosage and cannabis usage between whites and latinos will have a significant difference. Given our data, the difference may be because each person may choose to either accept or decline opioids in the emergency room, and many people may choose to either participate in medical cannabis usage or choose to decline usage. Outliers in our data include people choosing to decline cannabis usage and will be factored into our analysis of the data when using the two-way ANOVA.