[Attitudes, beliefs, and motivations in blood donors and non-donors].

OBJECTIVE: To know and compare the beliefs, attitudes and motivations of donors and non-donors in relation with blood donation.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Transversal study by questionnaires administered to 197 blood donors and 303 non-donors. The questionnaires gathered: sociodemographic data, beliefs and attitudes (using a Likert scale), and motivations and demotivations (using upon questions). The responses were analysed using different descriptive analyses and bivariant tests, and factorial analysis and discriminant analysis were performed as multivariant analyses.

RESULTS: The donor group had a mean age of 37.8 years, were 58.4 female and 41.6% male, and had made 6.02 donations. The non-donor group had a mean age of 39.8 years and were 53.8% female and 46.2 male. Regarding attitudes and beliefs, the donor group showed more confidence in the good conditions in which donations are performed, had less fears about the possibility that donation can affect health, their attitudes were generally less egotistical, and they had less fears about possible commercialisation of the blood. Both groups believed that blood banks and society itself give inadequate compensation to donors, but this belief was significantly greater among non-donors. Regarding the motivations of donors, the highest proportion were related with a sense of solidarity or duty (26.4%), followed by issues related with information or pressure (23.4%), and the possible personal or family benefits that donation might bring (21.8%). The initial motivations of most donors (75.9%) had not varied with the passage of time, and the factors found to be most demotivating for donation had to do with problems of access and comfort (74.6%). We would highlight that most non-donors denied any worries about blood donation (70.9%) and did not agree that those who need blood should be those who pay for it (92.8%). For non-donors, lack of information (43.6%) and different fears (32.3%) were the principal factors discouraging them from donating. Finally, discriminant analysis selected 11 of the items as providing 75.6% of correct discrimination between the one population and the other.

CONCLUSIONS: Donors and non-donors reveal very different beliefs, attitudes and motivations towards blood donation, and the questionnaire employed in this study permits a high degree of discrimination between the two groups. The attitudes of non-donors towards donation are generally less favourable, but allow us to think that a high percentage of these could be changed with the right conditions.