The Relationship between Body Mass Index and Blood Groups of Students Nursing College with Their Test-Phobia Symptoms among Them

Abstract

Globally marked increase in problems of body weight and psychological problems like test-phobia among students which can lead to negative academic, emotional or health problems. Both of these are affected by some of the students' diverse physical traits such as demographic characteristics and blood group. The study aims to describe the relationship between body mass index and types of blood groups for nursing students with test-phobia symptoms. The descriptive-analytic study was conducted in the College of Nursing at University of Kufa during the 2021s. The simple random sample used included 388 students (276 female and 112 male). The tool of study consisted of two parts. The first part related to demographic characteristics as well as, BMI; while the second part related to the Sarson scale for test-phobia. The results of the study revealed more than 40% had blood group type O (+ or -) more than 68% had normal body weight according to BMI with more than 90% having symptoms of test-phobia. There is an insignificant relationship between BMI with types of blood group and symptoms of test phobia among students and there is a statistically significant relationship between gender and their age with symptoms of test-phobia at p-value (0.05). The study concluded that most of the students had severe levels of test-phobia with normal BMI. There is a significant relationship between test phobia with some demographic characteristics like age and gender, but there is an insignificant relationship between symptoms of test phobia with BMI of students or their blood groups. The students with class O (+ or -) had high levels of test-phobia than other ABO blood groups. So, the study recommended conducting educational programs on how to deal with test-phobia for students, especially medical and nursing students to decrease these symptoms and encourage them to participate in social activities and use relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, closing their eyes, and positive visualization.