Validating a blood donation awareness tool created using general practitioner and patient acceptability and...

Area of Science:

• Health Promotion
• General Practice
• Public Health

Background:

• Growing need for effective tools to increase blood donation rates.
• General Practitioners (GPs) play a crucial role in patient outreach for health initiatives.
• Existing methods lack sufficient patient engagement for blood donation awareness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create and validate a novel tool for raising blood donation awareness in general practice settings.
• To ensure the tool meets criteria for patient and GP acceptability and preference.
• To assess the tool's applicability and effectiveness within routine general practice consultations.

Main Methods:

• A three-phase cross-sectional study involving tool creation, consensual selection, and validation.
• Stakeholder meetings co-developed initial tools (posters, lapel badge); pilot testing with GPs and patient interviews informed selection.
• Nominal group technique and expert review selected the optimal tool; electronic questionnaires validated acceptability among 217 GPs.

Main Results:

• A combined tool, incorporating elements from all piloted items, was selected as non-intrusive and convenient.
• Patients preferred self-initiated discussions; the combined tool showed high acceptability.
• 74.5% of GPs met acceptability criteria, and 93.1% expressed willingness to use the tool for awareness campaigns.

Conclusions:

• The developed blood donation awareness tool is validated for acceptability in general practice.
• Findings support the tool's potential for larger-scale evaluation within broader blood donation campaigns.
• The tool's design facilitates patient-centered communication and GP integration.