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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Immunology
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2024.1447619

Degree of fear of needles and preferred allergy immunotherapy treatment among children with allergic rhinitis: Caregiver survey results

Provisionally accepted
Karen Rance Karen Rance 1Michael Blaiss Michael Blaiss 2*Payel Gupta Payel Gupta 3Hendrik Nolte Hendrik Nolte 1Erin P. Scott Erin P. Scott 4Donna D. Gardner Donna D. Gardner 5
  • 1 Other, Bedminster, United States
  • 2 Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University, Augusta, United States
  • 3 Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, New York, United States
  • 4 Independent researcher, Tyler, United States
  • 5 Allergy and Asthma Network, Fairfax, Virginia, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: A child's fear of needles may impact the preferred route of allergy immunotherapy (AIT) when choosing between subcutaneous immunotherapy (allergy shots) or sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT). A survey was conducted to understand caregiver health-seeking behavior for children with allergic rhinitis with or without conjunctivitis (AR/C) and explore if fear of needles impacted AIT decisions. Methods: Caregivers of children ages 5-17 years with AR/C were recruited from the Dynata US research panel to participate in an online survey from May-June 2023. The survey received institutional review board exemption status. SLIT-tablets were described as "under-the-tongue tablets". Results: About a third (34%) of surveyed caregivers (n=437) reported their child had a severe fear of needles and 47% reported moderate fear. Of surveyed caregivers, 53% and 43% reported they had discussed allergy shots and SLIT-tablets, respectively, with their child's physician. SLIT-tablets were preferred by 84% of caregivers; 6% preferred injections and 10% had no preference. Caregivers of children with a severe fear of needles had the highest preference for SLIT-tablets (95%) vs injections (2%); 85% and 60% of caregivers of children with moderate and low fear, respectively, preferred SLIT-tablets. Among caregivers of children with a severe fear of needles, a higher percentage agreed that their child would welcome taking SLIT-tablets than that their child would accept taking an ongoing series of allergy shots (93% vs 43%, respectively). Conclusions: Most caregivers preferred SLIT-tablets over allergy shots for their child with AR/C. Preference for SLIT-tablets corresponded with the child's degree of fear of needles. Fear of needles should be included in AIT shared decision-making conversations.

    Keywords: allergy immunotherapy, Injections, Sublingual, Oral, Needle, preference, Fear, allergic rhinitis

    Received: 11 Jun 2024; Accepted: 19 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Rance, Blaiss, Gupta, Nolte, Scott and Gardner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Michael Blaiss, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University, Augusta, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.