Promotion of high school blood donations: testing the efficacy of a videotaped intervention

"Life to Life," an 11-minute videotape based on social learning principles, was used by 10 blood centers in presentations to 4970 high school students one week before school blood drives. At each school, some students saw the videotape and others attended a blood center's customary presentation. Students also completed a brief questionnaire assessing donation attitudes, donation history, and intent to donate. The videotape accounted for a relative increase of 18.7 percent in donations even when other factors were not controlled for. Results were analyzed with logistic models and showed a consistently positive effect over all models used. For students who had never donated, the estimated odds ratio for actual donation (videotape:control) was 1.528. When the model included both type of presentation and ethnicity, the relative increase in donation over that after the blood centers' usual presentation was 69.8 percent for first-time donors. Among previous donors considered alone, the effect on donation was not significant. Whatever their donor history, students who viewed the videotape showed significantly more positive attitudes toward donation and had greater intention to donate than students who saw the blood centers' standard presentations. These results suggest that this videotape is a useful tool for recruitment of high school blood donors.