title: Disgust, anxiety, and vasovagal syncope sensations: a comparison of injection-fearful and nonfearful blood donors.
abstract: Although research has implicated disgust in the fainting response observed in blood-injection-injury (BII) phobia, this finding has not been consistently observed in the literature. The present study further examines the relationship between disgust and fainting symptoms among injection-fearful (n=108) and nonfearful (n=338) blood donors. Volunteers from community blood drives provided pre-donation levels of anxiety and disgust towards giving blood and completed a standardized measure of vasovagal reactions (fainting) to blood donation after giving blood. As predicted, injection-fearful participants reported significantly more pre-donation anxiety and disgust compared to nonfearful participants. Injection-fearful donors also reported experiencing more fainting symptoms during blood donation and found the donation experience more unpleasant than did nonfearful participants. Although pre-donation disgust and anxiety levels each uniquely predicted fainting symptoms among nonfearful donors, only pre-donation anxiety uniquely predicted fainting symptoms among injection-fearful donors. Implications of these findings for conceptualizing the disgust-faint relationship in BII phobia are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, 312 Wilson Hall, 111 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37203, USA. megan.a.viar@vanderbilt.edu
authors.forename: Megan A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Viar
authors.forename: Erin N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Etzel
authors.forename: Bethany G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Ciesielski
authors.forename: Bunmi O
authors.initials: BO
authors.lastname: Olatunji
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001007:Anxiety / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001782:Blood Donors / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007275:Injections, Intravenous / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012044:Regression Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D019462:Syncope, Vasovagal / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult