Brief, peer-delivered motivational interview promotes help seeking behavior among college students with needle anxiety: A randomized controlled trial

Needle anxiety symptoms are prevalent among college students and predict lack of engagement in student health initiatives including influenza immunization programs. Most do not seek treatment for their anxiety.Objective:To develop and test a peer-delivered, brief motivational interview to promote help-seeking behaviors among college students with needle anxiety symptoms.Participants/Methods:61 university students who reported needle anxiety symptoms and having avoided medical situations involving needles in the last year were randomized to intervention or control conditions. Analyses compared self-reported help seeking behaviors at three months post-intervention.Results:Intervention group participants were more than twice as likely to report help-seeking behavior at follow up (IR = 2.41;95%CI = 1.29, 4.50;p=.006) than the control group. Participants also endorsed high levels of satisfaction with the intervention.Conclusions:This pilot intervention appears acceptable and feasible to implement using peers in the college setting. There is preliminary evidence for efficacy, with larger-scale replication needed.

Automated summary

Needle anxiety symptoms are common among college students and often lead to a lack of help-seeking behavior. This study developed and tested a peer-delivered, brief motivational interview to promote help-seeking behaviors in college students. The results showed that students who received the intervention were more than twice as likely to seek help and reported high levels of satisfaction with the intervention.