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A major challenge facing health care institutions today is to maintain and increase their pool of blood donors, which currently represents only a small proportion of the total population. With the advent of the AIDS epidemic, this modest base of donors may have eroded further. It is important, therefore, to understand the factors that influence a person's decision to donate blood in order to remove the barriers to donation.
Several models explaining blood donation behavior have been proposed and tested previously. Our study builds on the earlier findings and introduces the effects of trust perceptions on donation propensity that prior studies did not examine.
Researchers from both the health care profession and the behavioral sciences have explored blood donation behavior, with several attempting to explain what differentiates a donor from a nondonor. Earlier research in this area tried to predict donor status largely on the basis of demographic characteristics such as marital status, occupation, income, race, and religiosity (Bettinghaus and Milkovich 1975; Condie and Maxwell 1970; Oswalt 1977). Although demographic variables are useful in identifying and segmenting potential donors, these factors do not provide adequate insight into the reasons why people do or do not donate blood. Thus, subsequent research has tried to incorporate a variety of personality traits as alternate predictors of blood donation behavior (Burnett 1982; Condie, Warner, and Gillman 1976).
BLOOD DONOR MODEL
To assess which variables are more important determinants of blood donation, we tested a comprehensive model that included attitudinal variables directly related to blood donation, personal traits, and previously established demographic factors. The attitudinal variables incorporated three factors:
* An individual's trust in blood banks.
* A person's specific fear of acquiring health problems through the act of donation.
* A more general fear that people may associate with blood donation.
Based on J.J. Burnett's 1982 findings, we included self-esteem and risk-taking behavior as personal traits in the model. Another possible personal trait is altruism. However, prior findings show little evidence that measured altruism of an individual can predict whether that person will donate blood (see Condie, Warner and Gillman 1976). Burnett claimed that the motivation behind blood donation is selfish rather than altruistic. In 1985, Peggy Baden suggested that even if donation resulted from altruism, it would...