Factors Affecting Blood Donation Rates in Australia: Literature Review

This report presents a comprehensive literature review analyzing the factors influencing lower blood donation rates among Australians, with a focus on providing actionable recommendations for the Red Cross to increase donor participation and the supply of blood products. The research delves into the context and background of blood donation in Australia, highlighting the significant gap between the need for blood and the number of active donors. It outlines the research aim, objectives, and hypotheses, exploring target audiences, effective communication channels, promotional factors, and the impact of health-related misconceptions. The literature review examines studies on donor motivations, barriers, and demographic factors, including the influence of anxiety, lack of information, and ethnic background. The report also discusses the World Health Organization's strategies for promoting voluntary blood donation and identifies gaps in current research, particularly the lack of feasible plans to attract donors. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of engaging the youth through social media campaigns and fostering a sense of identification and involvement to increase blood donation rates.

Running head: ASSESSMENT 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND PROBLEM DEFINITION
ASSESSMENT 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND PROBLEM DEFINITION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ASSESSMENT 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND PROBLEM DEFINITION
Introduction
This research topic is about understanding of the factors that are affecting the lower blood
donation rates among Australians. Subsequently, the main focus of the research is towards
providing suggestions that will help the focus organization, Red Cross in making effective
decisions towards increasing the blood donors. This would in turn contribute to the increase in
blood products that would help people in medical need for blood. The implications generated
from the analysis of various previous literatures can be used to develop a better framework to
attract new blood donors. The problem issues need to be identified, evaluated and discussed
accordingly for gaining effective implications.
Context and research background
In Australia, there is a significant requirement of blood and blood products. Since, the
need is medical in nature it assigns much more importance to the need for more people to engage
in blood donation. It has been found that one third of Australians require blood and blood
products annually. However, only around 3% of the Australians actively engage in blood
donation (Australian Red Cross, 2019). Reports indicate that that more than 1.3 million annual
blood donations are required to cater to the requirement of blood services in the country.
Currently, there are only slightly above 600 thousand blood donors that are registered in the
country, according to Red Cross of Australia (Australian Red Cross, 2019). The research is
conducted to understand the right audiences that need to be approached for blood donation.
Market research can help to analyze the causes of the problems and create newer approaches
towards attracting blood donors in Australia.

2ASSESSMENT 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND PROBLEM DEFINITION
Main Literature Review
Research Aim
The aim of the research is to identify newer target audiences and find newer approaches
to attract the identified potential blood donors. In order to facilitate the same the study considers
summarizing, examining and analyzing the relevant literatures to focus on both the wider and
narrower specific issues.
Research objectives
 To find the target audiences that can be utilized to increase participation in blood
donation
 To understand how effective communication channels can be utilized for reaching the
audiences
 To find the right approaches that can be used for reaching the identified target audience
 To find the promotional factors that are required to increase the number of blood donors
Hypothesis
H1: More youngsters can be utilized towards increasing participation in blood donation
campaigns
H2: People are not inclined towards blood donation for the lack of promotion
H3: More people want to engage in blood donation but are not aware of the events
H4: Blood donation events do not get the same amount of media attention as other large events

3ASSESSMENT 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND PROBLEM DEFINITION
H5: People are less motivated to donate blood as many health related misconceptions are present
H6: Blood donation is not nationally promoted in Australia
H7: Red Cross would need to utilize large promotional teams to promote blood donation
H8: People are busy in their occupations and tend to ignore blood donation
The hypothesis mentioned have been tested through various existing researches in
relation to blood donation. It is important to note that the issues related to lesser number of
people opting for blood donation is a problem across many countries of the world along with
Australia. Organizations like Red Cross are facing increasing difficulty in promoting blood
donation especially among the youth. It has been found that a large portion of the youth of the
country are moving away from blood donation campaigns or events. The same problems that are
faced in Australia are also faced across many other developed countries (Sojka & Sojka, 2008).
According to McVittie, Harris and Tiliopoulos (2007) in their study had interviewed
blood donors and non-donors to find out the reasons behind many not donating blood. The study
found that non-donors usually do not engage in blood donation activities either due to anxiety or
practical problems. Anxiety in this case was found to be affected largely by unfamiliar
surroundings, lack of knowledge about processes, fear of contacting infectious diseases like HIV
and other similar kinds of anxieties. The other types of difficulties that non-donors faced were
found to be lack of information that were relevant, inability to attend events or sessions and
proximity of the blood donation camps. It can thus be said that a large number of people do
intend to give blood but face many social and psychological constraints that keep them from
donating. Lattimore, Wickenden and Brailsford (2015) opine that blood donation may actually be
affected by demographic factors. In the study blood donors were analyzed on the basis of their

4ASSESSMENT 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND PROBLEM DEFINITION
demographics in England and Northern Wales. The study found that 5.5% were British whites,
3.4% were Irish whites and 3.2% comprised of the other ethnic groups. Here, it can be said that
the native ethnic groups are the most likely to engage in donation activities. Keeping this in mind
it becomes important for organization like Red Cross to also reach out to ethnic minorities with
the blood donation campaigns. Moreover, the study found that blood donation numbers are
affected by ageing population, migration and other factors. Migrants being newly settled are
more conservative and do not engage in blood donation. It was also found that the average age of
blood donors was 43 years. This points to the fact that more number younger people are needed
for blood donation.
Individual attitudes have also been measured to understand how they affect blood
donation among people. The study focuses on the shortage of blood donors in the UK, Australia
and the United States. Individual attitudes feelings and outlooks were found to greatly influence
non-blood donors. Involvement was found to be a significant factor affecting blood donation.
This was noticed as lower involvement provided lower connection with blood donation. Higher
involvement created higher interest in blood donation among the sample population. The key
was found to be involvement with the issue of blood donation of individuals (Griffin, Grace &
O'Cass, 2014). More involvement with the issue prompted more inclination towards donation.
Some of the strategies to attract more people towards blood donation were provided by the
World Health Organization. The organization had called for 100% voluntary blood donation in
the blood policy of the nation. It also calls for the establishment of a national data record for
blood donors (World Health Organization, 2010). Among many other directives the report
focused on strategies to recruit more people to facilitate blood donation. The development of
emergency plans were also significantly focused on the report. Some important directives of the

5ASSESSMENT 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND PROBLEM DEFINITION
strategies involved the creation of blood donation culture among the population. This can create
a large difference as people will be more aware and more ready to donate blood. Some of the
problems that are being faced in Australia with regards to research of the donors is the difficulty
in gathering information that would be helpful towards understanding the barriers towards blood
donation. There has been a significant lack in proper research into the area of blood donors.
Hence, it cannot be easily found why people are moving away from donating blood in the
country. Proper research methods need to be implemented through which it can be found why
people are moving away from donating blood. Moving forward the same can be used towards
forming strategies that will help the organizations such as the Red Cross. There are currently
mechanisms to measure the participation rates of blood donors in universities. However, they
lack the depth to understand the factors that can actually influence more people to donate bloods.
The consulted literatures have been effective towards finding the reasons for lack of
interest of people towards blood donation. However, the major research gap lies in the fact that
the various studies have not focused on a feasible plan to approach blood donors. The various
ways in which the blood donors can be attracted have not been given much prominence in the
researches. Hence, although the reaches have been able to identify the right problems, they are
not actually very effective in providing the right solutions (Karki et al., 2019). Additionally, the
psychological factors and how to tackle them are not given preference.
Conclusion
It is important to understand that the demand for blood in the country is not being met
through the current supplies that are available. The analysis of the literatures point to the fact that
much work still needs to be done by the organizations such as Red Cross. However, the major

6ASSESSMENT 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND PROBLEM DEFINITION
target audiences that were identified can be said to be the youth. In order to reach out to new
people, the organization needs to attract more youths towards the blood donation oriented events.
It is important that social media campaigns are used. Moreover, a sense of identification and
more involvement needs to be created. People need to be made aware of the possibilities they
can crate through blood donation in the medical sector.

7ASSESSMENT 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND PROBLEM DEFINITION
References
Australian Red Cross. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.redcross.org.au/
Grieve, R., Willis, S., De Corte, K., Sadique, M. Z., Hawkins, N., Perra, S., ... & Koppitz, C.
(2018). Options for possible changes to the blood donation service: health economics
modelling. Health Services and Delivery Research, 6(40).
Griffin, D., Grace, D., & O'Cass, A. (2014). Blood donation: comparing individual
characteristics, attitudes, and feelings of donors and nondonors. Health marketing
quarterly, 31(3), 197-212.
Karki, S., Davison, T. E., Thijsen, A., Gemelli, C. N., Irving, D. O., & Wright, S. T. (2019).
Completeness and accuracy of self‐reported history of blood donation: results from a
cohort of older adults in Australia. Transfusion, 59(1), 26-31.
Lattimore, S., Wickenden, C., & Brailsford, S. R. (2015). Blood donors in E ngland and N orth
W ales: demography and patterns of donation. Transfusion, 55(1), 91-99.
McVittie, C., Harris, L., & Tiliopoulos, N. (2006). " I intend to donate but…": Non-donors'
views of blood donation in the UK. Psychology, health & medicine, 11(1), 1-6.
Piersma, T. W., Bekkers, R., de Kort, W., & Merz, E. M. (2018). Blood donation across the life
course: the influence of life events on donor lapse.
Sojka, B. N., & Sojka, P. (2008). The blood donation experience: self‐reported motives and
obstacles for donating blood. Vox sanguinis, 94(1), 56-63.

8ASSESSMENT 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND PROBLEM DEFINITION
World Health Organization. (2010). Towards 100% voluntary blood donation: a global
framework for action.