Prevalence and Stability of Blood/injection Phobia in Childhood

Objectives: Needle phobia is the extreme fear of procedures including injections or hypodermic needles. In the DSM-IV it is recognized as a specific phobia of the blood-injection-injury (BII) type. BII is the second most common specific phobia with an estimated prevalence of 3% in the general population. From several cross-sectional studies it is assumed that the prevalence decreases with age. The aim of this investigation was to study the prevalence, stability and course of blood/injection phobia (BI) in children and adolescents.
Methods: The Trondheim early secure study is a longitudinal, population-based study of risk and protection factors for the mental health of children. 1041 children born in 2003 and 2004 in Trondheim, Norway were followed bi-annually from 4 to 14 years of age. BI was explored during a diagnostic interview with questions regarding fear of blood and injections as well as the consequences of this fear.
Results: At 4 year of age the prevalence of BI phobia was 2.5%. The prevalence increased with age until 10 years of age where the peak prevalence was found, 8.0%. There was no statistically significant difference in prevalence of BI phobia between girls or boys. A total of 14.2% were diagnosed with BI phobia between 4 and 14 years of age, 9.2% were diagnosed at one time point, 2.8% were diagnosed at 2 time points and 2.2% were diagnosed at 3 time points of more. Between 55.0% and 76.5% of those diagnosed with BI phobia at one time point were not diagnosed with the condition two years later.
Conclusions: The prevalence of DSM-IV diagnosed BI phobia has a convex growth curve with a peak at 10 years of age with an equal distribution between boys and girls.