Online responses to motivational interview questions enhance blood donation intention

A motivational interview may promote blood donor retention, but live interviews can be costly. To address this challenge, we conducted two studies to examine the impact of online delivery of motivational interview content on donation intention.

In Study 1, a total of 3883 respondents (52.2% female; mean ± SD age, 35.69 ± 11.3 years) completed a donation commitment measure and were randomly assigned to one of seven motivational interview-based questions or a no-question control group. In Study 2, a total of 2246 respondents (58.4% female; mean ± SD age, 35.5 ± 11.4 years) with a moderate level of donation commitment were randomly assigned to receive zero to four motivational interview-based questions. In both studies, future donation intention was measured immediately after the intervention.

The first study revealed a significant effect of interview question on donation intention among participants with moderate blood donation commitment (F(7,1299) = 3.699, p = 0.001), but not among those with low or high commitment (F(7,1233) = 1.411, p = 0.20; and F(7,1327) = 0.964, p = 0.46, respectively). Study 2 replicated the significant effect of interview questions on donation intention (F(1,2230) = 2.168, p = 0.006). Relative to the no-question control condition, follow-up analyses revealed significantly higher donation intentions with 14 of the 15 question combinations (p ≤ 0.05).

These findings provide initial support that online survey questions modeled on motivational interview content may elicit personal reflections that enhance donation intention, particularly among individuals with a moderate level of donation commitment.