Increasing first-time blood donation of newly registered donors using implementation intentions and explicit...

Most blood donors stop donating blood at the beginning of their donor career. This intervention study aims to increase first-time return behaviour of newly registered donors using implementation intentions and explicit commitment techniques.

Newly registered donors (N = 937) received an extra information sheet during their medical check-up wherein implementation intentions and explicit commitment techniques were tested. Donors were randomly assigned to either the control condition, information sheet only condition, information sheet with implementation intentions condition, information sheet with explicit commitment condition, or information sheet with both implementation intentions and explicit commitment condition. Logistic regression analyses examined actual first-time return behaviour after an appeal to donate blood.

Donors in the information sheet with both implementation intentions and explicit commitment condition had an 11.5% higher return rate than donors in the control condition. Logistic regression analyses revealed that the information sheet with both implementation intentions and explicit commitment condition significantly increased the odds on return behaviour compared with the control condition (OR = 1.65, 95%CI = 1.08-2.50).

This study successfully increased actual first-time return behaviour of newly registered donors by using both implementation intentions and explicit commitment techniques.