Needle fear in Africa: Understanding Procedural Experiences, Psychosocial, Religious and Biological Contributors, and Management, A Scoping Review

An extensive international survey on needle fear has included participants from various countries across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia (Alwafi et al., 2024). However, the African continent has generally been underrepresented in these large international surveys. While one study has explored needle anxiety among students at a Nigerian university health centre (Ekore, 2016) and another assessed prevalence in Egypt (Alwafi et al., 2024), the literature across the continent remains limited, and comprehensive efforts to map the literature on needle-related pain and fear in Africa as a whole are still developing. This is even though Africa remains a significant public health concern, with various infectious diseases requiring needle procedures (Boutayeb, 2010; Nkengasong & Tessema, 2020; Aremu et al., 2025). Thus, this study aims to conduct a scoping review to map the research on needle-related pain and fear in African populations.