title: Frequency of fear of needles and impact of a multidisciplinary educational approach towards pregnant women with diabetes.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the frequency of fear of needles and the impact of a multidisciplinary educational program in women with pre-gestational and gestational diabetes taking insulin during pregnancy.
  
  
  METHODS
  The short Diabetes Fear of Injecting and Self-testing Questionnaire (D-FISQ), composed by two subscales that access fear of self injection (FSI) and fear of self testing (FST), was administered twice during pregnancy to 65 pregnant women with pre-gestational and gestational diabetes: at the first endocrine consult and within the last two weeks of pregnancy or postpartum. An organized multidisciplinary program provided diabetes education during pregnancy. Statistical analysis was carried out by Wilcoxon and McNemar tests and Spearman correlation. A p<0.05 was considered to be significant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data from the short D-FISQ questionnaire shows that 43.1% of pregnant women were afraid of needles in the first evaluation. There was a significant reduction in scores for FSI and FST subscales between the first and second assessments (first FSI 38.5% compared with second 12.7%, p=0.001; first FST 27.7% compared with second FST 14.3%, p=0.012).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The fear of needles is common in pregnant women on insulin therapy and an organized multidisciplinary educational diabetes program applied during pregnancy reduces scores of such fear.
authors.affiliation: Ambulatory of Endocrinopathies, Departament of Obstetrics, Maternidade de Referência Professor José Maria de Magalhães Netto, Salvador, BA, Brazil.
authors.forename: Alina Coutinho Rodrigues
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Feitosa
authors.forename: Luciana Nunes
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Sampaio
authors.forename: Ana Graciele Lessa
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Batista
authors.forename: Carla Borges
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Pinheiro
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016640:Diabetes, Gestational / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology*; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009339:Needles; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011247:Pregnancy; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult