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Blood donors' attitudes towards incentives: influence on motivation to donate
Leila Kasraian1, Mahtab Maghsudlu
1Education and Research Department, Community Medicine Specialist, Blood Transfusion Research Centre, Higher Institute for Research and Education in Transfusion Medicine, Shiraz, Iran. lkasraian@yahoo.com
Insights
Most blood donors are altruistic and do not desire incentives. However, non-monetary incentives may attract younger, first-time donors, and those with lower education levels to improve blood donation recruitment.
Area of Science:
- Medical Science
- Public Health
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Donor motivation is key for effective blood donation recruitment programs.
- Incentives are commonly employed to enhance donor recruitment efforts.
- This study investigated donor attitudes towards incentives.
Purpose of the Study:
- To understand donor motivations for blood donation.
- To assess donor attitudes towards various incentives.
- To identify factors influencing interest in donation incentives.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional study involving 421 volunteer blood donors.
- Data collected via questionnaires on demographics, donation history, motivations, and incentive preferences.
- Statistical analysis included logistic regression and chi-squared tests.
Main Results:
- 85.6% of donors cited altruism as their primary motivation.
- 25.3% believed incentives should be offered to encourage donation.
- Specific blood tests were identified as the most desired incentive by 84.5% of donors.
- Non-altruistic donors, younger individuals, married donors, first-time donors, those with lower education, and frequent donors ( >5 donations) showed greater interest in incentives.
Conclusions:
- A significant majority (74.7%) of donors expressed no desire for incentives, particularly altruistic donors.
- Non-monetary incentives could be effective for specific donor segments: younger, married, first-time donors, those with lower educational attainment, and donors with a history of over five donations.
- Understanding these nuances can refine blood donor recruitment strategies.
Background:
Understanding the factors that motivate donors to donate will facilitate improvements in recruitment programmes. Donation incentives are often used to improve the effect of recruitment programmes. This cross-sectional study was designed to understand donors' attitudes toward incentives.
Material And Methods:
Participants (n=421) were recruited among volunteer donors at the Shiraz Blood Transfusion Centre when they registered for blood donation. They completed a questionnaire with items regarding demographic characteristics, donation status (first-time donor or regular donor), and their motivation for donating, their attitude towards incentives, and the best type of incentives. Multiple logistic regression and chi-squared tests were used to analyse the data with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software.
Results:
The majority of donors (85.6%) donated blood for altruistic reasons. One quarter of the donors (25.3%) believed that incentives should be offered to encourage them to donate. Most donors (84.5%) believed that the most effective incentive was offering specific blood tests. Donors who had donated for non-altruistic reasons were more interested in receiving incentives. The desire to receive incentives was more widespread among younger, married, first-time donors, donors with a lower educational level and donors with a history of more than five donations. The desire to receive incentives decreased as age increased.
Discussion:
Most of the donors (74.7%) had no desire to receive incentives, and this was even more apparent among donors who donated for altruistic reasons. Non-monetary incentives may be effective in attracting younger, married, first-time donors, donors with a lower educational level and donors with a history of more than five donations.
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