The relation between disgust-sensitivity, blood-injection-injury fears and vasovagal symptoms in blood donors: Disgust sensitivity cannot explain fainting or blood donation-related symptoms

Abstract

Background and objectives Page’s (1994) prominent theory for the explanation of fainting in blood-injection-injury situations holds that disgust sensitivity contributes to syncopal reactions. We investigated if blood donation-related vasovagal symptoms (1) or fainting related to blood donations (2) are associated with disgust sensitivity. Methods In an online sample of 361 blood donors, we assessed blood-injection-injury fears, disgust sensitivity, history of blood donation related fainting and retrospective self-ratings of vasovagal symptoms. For the assessment of blood-injection-injury fears we used the BII-Q which has excellent psychometric properties and does not confound disgust and anxiety sensitivity. Vasovagal symptoms were measured by the Blood Donation Reactions Inventory (BDRI) which captures mild and strong vasovagal symptoms and has been used in previous studies with blood donors. Results Disgust sensitivity did not significantly contribute to the explanation of self-reported vasovagal symptoms in a regression model with gender, blood-injection-injury fear and disgust sensitivity as predictors. We did not find any significant group differences in disgust sensitivity for blood donors with or without a fainting history (statistical power = 0.95) and a Bayesian model selection procedure showed that it is more likely that both groups are equally disgust sensitive than it is that the fainters are more disgust sensitive. Limitations Further research is required to confirm the findings in prospective studies. Conclusion Our results indicate that disgust sensitivity is not relevant for the development of vasovagal syncopes.