What rural residents want from blood donation services: a discrete choice experiment

Blood donation rates are low in Nigeria, and not much is known about rural residents' preferences for blood services. Understanding what these residents want could lead to improved blood donation rates. This study aimed to determine rural residents' preferences for attributes of blood donation services in Igbo-Ora, Nigeria.

A thorough literature search and a focus group discussion with selected medical laboratory scientists were used to identify the attributes and their levels. A multi-stage sampling method was employed in selecting 150 respondents for the study. Nine choice sets were constructed using an efficient D-Optimal design, while a Discrete Choice Experiment was conducted using the nine choice sets with three hypothetical blood services in each set. Consistency of the respondents was measured by including the tenth choice set, which was a repetition of the first set. Parameter and willingness- to-pay estimates were obtained using mixed logit modelling.

The respondents' mean age was 36.1 years, while 79.2% responded consistently to all choice set questions. Very low transportation costs and waiting time of within an hour for the blood donation process were preferred by the respondents. Free medical check-up was the most preferred attribute level, while the respondents showed a strong aversion to the meal voucher. Furthermore, attribute levels "donor only" and "anybody in need" were strongly disapproved. The respondents preferred their immediate family members to be recipients of blood donated by them.

Rural residents preferred blood services with very low transportation costs, free medical check-ups as an incentive, and waiting time of within 1 h. These attribute levels deserve the attention of relevant policymakers in blood donation services.