Motivations and deterrents of blood donation among blood donors during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Hong Kong

Abstract

Background The COVID‐19 pandemic has resulted in a reduction in blood donations and limited blood supply in many countries. The theory of planned behaviour has been widely used in past studies to understand the factors influencing blood donation. However, this theory limits analyses to the individual level. Furthermore, most research on the determinants of blood donation during the COVID‐19 pandemic is quantitative in nature, with relevant qualitative research being rare. Objectives To investigate the motivators and demotivators for donating blood among current blood donors during COVID‐19 pandemic. Design Forty in‐depth, individual semistructured interviews were conducted with current blood donors from December 2020 to March 2021 in Hong Kong. Thematic content analysis was adopted in the data analysis. Results The majority of the participants (n = 37) were demotivated from donating blood during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Factors at the perceptual, social and institutional levels interacted to cause this reluctance. Only three participants felt more motivated to donate blood. The data revealed that sociocultural forces and government pandemic prevention policies strongly affected the participants' motivations to donate blood during the pandemic. Conclusion This study presents a macro understanding of blood donation behaviour by investigating the institutional, social and perceptual factors influencing current blood donors during the COVID‐19 pandemic. This adds a more comprehensive understanding of blood donation where the theory of planned behaviour is widely used in past studies. Public Contribution The participants shared their experiences in the interviews. Their experiences provide hints for explaining the decreasing blood donation during the pandemic times.

The influence of the COVID‐19 pandemic on blood donation and supply in China

“…As demonstrated in the current study this resulted in changes in led to an enormous anxiety among blood donors. [50][51][52] Thus, it is important to help blood donors defeat their fears and feel comfortable to donate blood to help us overcome this crisis.…”

“…The possible reason for causing this change was the fear of infection. The emergence of COVID‐19 had led to an enormous anxiety among blood donors 50–52 . Thus, it is important to help blood donors defeat their fears and feel comfortable to donate blood to help us overcome this crisis.…”

Doação de sangue durante a pandemia da Covid-19: conhecimentos, práticas e atitudes dos estudantes de medicina

“…Entretanto, captar e fidelizar doadores é um grande desafio para os serviços de hemoterapia 4, [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] . Este estudo analisou CAPs dos estudantes de medicina frente à escassez de sangue iniciada em março de 2020 e perpetuada a partir do mês de abril do mesmo ano, devido à instauração de um cenário pandêmico pela COVID-19 [27][28][29][30][31][32] , revelando os principais pontos a serem trabalhados e divulgados, com o intuito de ajudar no desenvolvimento das próximas campanhas de doação de sangue e entender as principais barreiras e incentivos, a fim de obter um maior número de doadores.…”

“…Apesar disso, vale destacar que um dos grandes contribuintes no medo, no período do estudo, foram as incertezas desencadeadas pelo SARs CoV-2 2,5,7,8,21 , principalmente o medo de contrair a doença ao visitar ambientes de alto risco de contaminação -hospitais e bancos de sangue -e a dificuldade de se chegar e transitar nesses pontos de coleta 20,21 , devido restrições governamentais, lockdown, e controle Purim KSM, Bezerra IC, Jesus JVW, Machado RKM, Rocha RR, Silva TD de fluxo dos próprios hospitais. Estes dois fatores inibiram a prática de doação de sangue em 18% dos participantes em um estudo indiano 31 , 81% em pesquisa chinesa 35 e em 87,5% para estudo de Hong Kong 29 . Medos, dificuldades e incertezas que afetaram consideravelmente nas taxas de doação e diminuíram os estoques dos hemobancos [26][27][28] .…”

Applying behavioral change theories to optimize pulmonary rehabilitation in COPD patients: A review

“…Notably, perceived behavioral control, a central component of TPB, directly affects whether an individual will engage in a specific behavior [42] After continuous validation and refinement, TPB has evolved into an open and applicable model capable of effectively predicting and explaining individual behavioral decisions. It has been successfully applied to predict a variety of behaviors in areas such as blood donation, [43] vaccination, [44] telerehabilitation, [45] cancer screening, [46] nurses’ intention to leave their job, [47] and intentions regarding injection treatments, [48] demonstrating strong explanatory power.…”