Sprøyteskrekk blant barn og unge mellom 11-15 år

English summary The aims of this pilot study were to assess the prevalence of fear of injections among 12-16 year olds, to estimate possible related conditions such as anxiety and lack of motivation for dental treatment, and at the same time to develop and test an instrument for measuring intraoral injection fear. The study was performed on a sample of 154 pupils between 11 and 15 years old, attending Skranevatnet School in Bergen. The data for the study was obtained from a questionnaire which was completed in the classrooms under our supervision and that of a teacher. The questionnaire contained 5 psychometric scales. Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) and Dental Fear Scale (DFS) were used to measure dental anxiety. Injection phobia Scale (IS) and Blood phobia Scale (BS) were used to register the prevalence of Blood-Injury-Injection phobia (BII-phobia). The intraoral injection scale for children and adolescents was developed by our supervisors and their research group, in order to measure intraoral injection anxiety. Between 2 and 4 % of the pupils said that they had fainted while receiving an injection from a dentist, doctor or nurse. About 13 % of the pupils could be characterized as avoiders of dental anaesthesia, 6 % had a great fear of intraoral injections, 4.5 % had a great fear of injections in general, and 5.2 % had a high level of blood/injury anxiety. According to DAS, 7.8 % of the pupils were considered to have a high level of anxiety about receiving dental treatment, and according to DFS, 8.4 % had a high level of anxiety. The questionnaire developed to measure fear of intraoral injections (IOS) appeared to have a high level of reliability and validity. The question about fear of the needle prick being painful" scored the highest of all the questions on the scale. The girls scored significantly higher than the boys. There was a clear and statistically significant tendency towards decreasing levels of intraoral injection anxiety, with increasing age. There was a high correlation between the sum score from IOS and the sum scores from the two scales relating to BII-phobia (BS and IS) as well as the sum scores from the two scales relating to dental treatment fear (DAS and DFS). Children who showed a high level of intraoral injection phobia scored significantly higher on the other 4 psychometric scales. Conclusion: The prevalence of intraoral injection anxiety in this particular age group seems to be significant (about 6 %) and a large number of children (13 %) wish to avoid intraoral injections. There appears to be a connection between intraoral injection phobia, BII-phobia and fear of dental treatment. Children who wish to avoid intraoral injections are more anxious about receiving dental treatment and other injections, than the children who do not try to avoid them