How common is needle fear at the GP clinic

Fear is a very vague term.  Measuring the percentage of people who have a ‘fear’ is prone to inaccuracies as people who fill out surveys understand the term in many ways.  When a fear becomes impactful on someones life it tends to be referred to by the clinical term phobia.  In a study by Wright et al (2009) here in sunny Queensland (Australia), 22% a sample of 177 patients at a outer Brisbane suburb stated that they were afraid of needles.  This result is consistent with another study of patients attending a traveler’s health clinic (23%).  The 23% refers to the percentage of people who are fearful and this is slightly different to people who have a needle phobia.  The percentage of people with a very intense fear (phobia) has been estimated to be somewhere between 2% and 10% depending on what criteria you use to define the phobia cut-off point.

Why is this important?

It is simple common sense that having a needle jabbed into your body is never going to be fun.  But if you are going to travel overseas, have a baby or donate blood you will at some stage need to actively engage in behaviour that will invite this event.  The current study identified that those people who were afraid of needles were three to four times less likely to give blood, seek a blood test or engage in preventative injections (flu shot).  So although it is likely that many of these people will not be not a recognised as having clinical levels of needle fear, the passive withdrawal from preventative health measures may impact on themselves and others.

Source:

Fear of needles: Nature and prevalence in general practice

Wright, Simone; Yelland, Michael; Heathcote, Kathy; Ng, Shu-Kay; Wright, Garfield. Australian Family Physician; Melbourne38.3 (Mar 2009): 172-6.