Donor Return Rates Research Articles

Memory for the Experience of Donating Blood: Just How Bad Was It?

A field experiment investigated the accuracy of blood donor's memory for the emotions they experienced during blood donation. Compared to what they reported at the time of donation, the donors remembered a greater contrast between predonation and postdonation emotions. The donors also remembered experiencing more anxiety than they actually did. The bias in memory was especially pronounced among relatively inexperienced donors who had not been asked to report on their emotion prior to their actual donations. The memory boas was also related to donors' attitudes at the time of recall. Donors' intentions to donate blood again were reliably predicted by a combination of attitude and emotion measures. Discussion considers a potential intervention for improving donor return rates.

Evaluation of technical and behavioral issues in predonation alanine aminotransferase testing.

To evaluate the technical and behavioral impact of predonation alanine aminotransferase (ALT) testing, one group of 2914 donors (Reflotron group) were tested with the Boehringer Mannheim Reflotron instrument; 3042 control group donors had no predonation test. Mobile blood collection sites in three regional blood centers were studied. More Reflotron group donors than control group donors thought that predonation testing did not add time and was a good idea. Both groups were equally satisfied with the donation process and indicated they would donate again even if testing added time. Comparison of the Reflotron and standard laboratory tests showed excellent correlation with low variability. The mean r value was 0.934, with a mean sensitivity of 94.4 percent and a specificity of 99.8 percent. The staff working with the Reflotron group found predonation testing easy to incorporate into donor screening. They observed that donors were pleased with testing and accepting of deferral counseling for elevated ALT. The control group staff was concerned that predonation testing would require more time and would have a negative effect on the donor return rate. This did not appear to be the case as judged by donor response and the 6-month return rates of 50 percent for Reflotron group and 54 percent for control group donors.

The effect of telephone messages/prompts on return rates of first-time blood donors

The effect of telephone messages/prompts on return rates of first-time blood donors