Factors Affecting Regular Blood Donation Behavior

Kim, Jun Hyun; Song, Hyun Jong

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There is a fundamental limitation in securing adequate amounts of blood without the donation from voluntary donors. In order to ensure the adequacy of the blood supply and the safety of blood, it is essential to encourage donors to remain in the pool. Therefore, the primary goal of this study was to investigate the factors related to a repeated donation behavior.
METHODS
Blood donors from the 28 blood centers of Korean Red Cross were mailed a questionnaire between September 1 and 30, 2003. The samples calculated by the total annual number of donors were allocated to each center. A total of 1,400 questionnaires were distributed at 28 regional centers, 681 subjects from 14 centers responded. The final sample was 655 in this study.
RESULTS
Based on the result of logistic regression analysis after an adjustment, men are likely to donate regularly than women (OR=3.11). In addition, those 20 or over were more likely to be regular donors than those 16~19 years old (OR=2.28), and people who did not want a monetary reward (OR=3.74) or believed it is never given to them (OR=3.52) were more likely to donate frequently than people who think they deserved a reward.
CONCLUSION
Based on these results, it is important to encourage women to donate. Since a monetary incentive or reward is not supposed to increase the rate of blood donation, it needs to develop more effective incentives such as a donor's health management or blood credit.