Date of Publication
6-1-2022
Abstract
Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination clinics held in community centers provided a solution for increasing vaccination rates in the Black community Blood donations, like vaccination turnouts, could correlate with accessibility of donation center location. Our project asked new and recurrent Black blood donors, about their donation preferences to identify recruitment solutions.
Methods: An eighteen-question, online-anonymous survey, was distributed to American Red Cross (ARC) blood donors who self-identify as African American and have donated > 1 time since 1/1/2019. Responses from 512 blood donors were received regarding their knowledge of sickle cell disease, frequency of donation, familiarity with the donation venue, their preferred informational medium, and motivations for donating. Responses collected 4/20/222 - 4/27/22 were stratified into “repeat donors” (>3 times since 2019, n=329) and “new donors” (< 3 times since 2019, n=183).
Results: New donors who preferred to donate blood at a community center (28.0%) were more likely to co-select “giving back to [their] community” as a primary motivation (80.8%, p = 0.048). New donors also indicated “walk-in” scheduling preference compared to recurrent donors (54.8% vs 42.8%, p= 0.032), whereas recurrent donors demonstrated significant preference for scheduling “>1 month in advance” (22.6% vs 42.2%, p < 0.0001). Additionally, new donors were unsure of where to donate blood as compared to recurrent donors (11.3% vs 3.8%, p=0.009).
Conclusions: The study results indicate that consideration should be given to disbursement of information regarding the location of the venue and scheduling options for blood drive participants.
Advisor(s)
Mark Fung, MD
Larner College of Medicine, University of Vermont
Jennie Lamping
Community Agency Mentor
Agency
American Red Cross
Subjects
Community, Educational and Community-Based Programs, Emergency Preparedness, Environmental Health, Global Health, Health Communication, Health-Related Quality of Life & Well-Being, Immunization and Infectious Diseases, Infectious Disease, Vaccination
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License
Recommended Citation
Bazinet-Phillips, Jasmine A.; Chowdhury, Ashfi; Darko, Olivia; Falcone, Michelle; Glickman, Benjamin M.; Schrager, Alec M.; and VanDyk, Tyler, "Improving Blood Donation Rates through Analysis of Motivational Factors for Repeat and New Black Donors" (2022). Public Health Projects, 2008-present. 355.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/355