Identifying Strategies to Address Systemic Barriers to Blood Donation for South Asian Communities in Ontario: A...

Background/Objectives: Building a donor base that reflects the diversity of Canada is essential to ensuring everyone has timely and reliable access to high-quality blood products. This qualitative research project aimed to both determine barriers to donation for diverse South Asian communities and seek feedback and guidance on proposed interventions to address those barriers. Methods: This study was guided by the principles of community-based participatory research and data was gathered and analyzed using constructivist grounded theory. We conducted eight in-person focus groups and four interviews. Results: Our findings indicate that barriers to donation are systemic. Barriers include inaccessibility, deferrals and negative donation experiences, lack of awareness and newcomer settlement challenges, social exclusion, navigating an unfamiliar donation system, and issues with access to appropriate care in health systems more generally. Participants proposed addressing these barriers through changes in the blood service, such as more convenient access to donation and improved cultural sensitivity and cultural comfort in donation centres, and also through changes in health systems more generally. Recommendations included sustained collaboration with communities to inform policies and practices based on cultural and social contexts. Conclusions: Our study of systemic barriers to blood donation for South Asian communities in Ontario indicates that barriers to donation are systemic. Participants proposed changes to blood services that would address some of these barriers. Where systemic barriers are attached to broader social structures, the strategies to address barriers will require longer-term considerations and resources.