Valeria Ramos Prado, FCLC 2026

Major: Integrative Neuroscience - Cell and Molecular

Bio: Valeria Isabel Ramos Prado is interested in health disparities, cognitive aging, and the social factors that shape patient experiences and treatment expectations. She is a research assistant in Fordham’s Memory and Aging Lab and the TRILPP and Multimodal Labs at Weill Cornell Medicine, where she contributes to research on cognition, aging, pain, and patient-clinician communication with a focus on equity in care.

Title of Research: Racial and Ethnic Differences in Treatment Expectations for Pain: An Exploratory Analysis in Hemodialysis Patients

Mentor: Dr. Karen Siedlecki, Psychology and Neuroscience

Abstract: Chronic pain is highly prevalent among patients receiving hemodialysis as a consequence of end-stage renal disease and is frequently undertreated. Treatment expectations are an important psychological factor that can influence engagement with and response to pain interventions, yet little is known about how treatment expectations vary across social determinants of health in this population. The present exploratory analysis examined whether treatment expectations differed by race and ethnicity among hemodialysis patients enrolled in the Pain Reduction Using NEurostimulation (PRUNE) study, a randomized clinical trial evaluating a nonpharmacologic intervention for chronic pain. Treatment expectations of 76 participants were assessed using a modified Opinion About Treatment scale. Racial differences in treatment expectations were examined with a multivariate ANOVA, followed by an adjusted model including pharmacological pain management as a covariate. Based on previous research showing that racial and ethnic minority patients frequently experience higher pain burden, structural barriers to adequate pain management, and greater reliance on nonpharmacologic or spiritually grounded coping, it was hypothesized that there would be racial differences in  expectations for treatment benefit. Contrary to study hypotheses, treatment expectations did not differ significantly by race in the unadjusted model, F(3, 72) = 0.30, p = .825, nor in the adjusted model, F(5, 70) = 1.10, p = .369. Additional analyses indicated no significant associations between treatment expectations and other social determinants of health, including language or educational attainment. Although modest variability was observed in descriptive comparisons, no meaningful baseline disparities were detected. These findings suggest that treatment expectations may be more uniform across racial and ethnic groups among hemodialysis patients with chronic pain than hypothesized. Given the exploratory nature of this study and limited sample size, further research with larger, adequately powered samples is needed to clarify whether subtle social or contextual factors influence expectations and subsequent treatment engagement in this vulnerable and high-need population.