Final answer:
The patient's ethnicity and sex can influence the expression of pain, which is true according to research in the Journal of Pain and the work of medical anthropologists like Leith Mullings.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement about the patient's ethnicity and sex influencing the expression of pain is true. Research indicates that there are significant sex differences in reported pain, with females generally reporting higher pain levels than males. This is supported by a study in the Journal of Pain, which reported that women on average experienced pain 20 percent more of the time compared to men. Additionally, the expression and perception of pain can indeed be influenced by cultural factors related to a person's ethnicity. Medical anthropologists have observed that medical systems may exhibit biases that can affect how pain is perceived and addressed, especially in groups with historically unequal treatment such as what Leith Mullings found in her research on traditional medicine in Ghana and health inequalities in the United States, particularly among Black women. It has also been documented that women, in general, might be more likely to be misdiagnosed or have their pain underestimated because of systemic biases in medical treatment.