Blood Collection Agency Messaging to Donors and the Public in Canada and Australia during the Early Days of COVID-19

COVID-19 has posed unprecedented challenges to health systems around the world, including blood collection agencies (BCAs). Many countries, such as Canada and Australia, that rely on non-remunerated voluntary donors saw an initial drop in donors in the early days of the pandemic followed by a return to sufficient levels of the blood supply. BCA messaging plays a key role in communicating the needs of the blood operator, promoting and encouraging donation, educating, and connecting with the public and donors. This paper is an interpretive discourse analysis of BCA messaging in Canada and Australia from March 1-July 31, 2020 to understand how BCAs constructed donation to encourage donation during this period and what this can tell us about public trust and blood operators. Drawing on multiple sources of online content and print media, our analysis identified four dominant messages during the study period: 1) blood donation is safe;2) blood donation is designated an essential activity;3) blood is needed;and 4) blood donation is a response to the pandemic. In Canada and Australia, our analysis suggests that: 1) in a time of uncertainty, donors and some publics trusted the BCA to be an organization with expertise to ensure that donation is safe, essential, and able to meet patient needs;and 2) BCAs demonstrated their trustworthiness by aligning their messaging with public health and scientific experts. For BCAs, our analysis supports donor communications that are transparent and responsive to public concerns and the local context to support public trust. Beyond BCAs, health organizations and leaders cannot underestimate the importance of building and maintaining public trust as countries continue to struggle with containment of the virus and encourage vaccine uptake. © Haw, Thorpe and Holloway.

Motivators of and barriers to donating convalescent plasma for COVID-19

Background/Case Studies: In the absence of a vaccine, COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) collected from people recovered from COVID-19 may provide one viable treatment option. Blood Collection Agencies (BCA) are collecting CCP to support clinical trials and the production of hyperimmune immunoglobulin. To date, nothing is known about what influences the decision-making of those eligible to be CCP donors. This research addresses this gap. If CCP is beneficial in treating COVID-19 and there is an ongoing need to collect CCP, this information will assist in recruiting and retaining CCP donors. Study Design/Methods: Drawing on research on barriers and motivations for Ebola CP donation, plasma donation in general, and barriers to donating during COVID-19, items assessing potential motivators (e.g., gratitude) and barriers (e.g., infection risks) to donating CCP were developed. These were administered along with items assessing intention to (re)donate CCP to 391 eligible UK CCP non-donors and 203 Australian CCP donors Results/Findings: Exploratory factor analysis with the non-donor data identified 6 motivation (e.g., gratitude, reciprocity) and 7 barrier factors (e.g., infection risk to self/ others, remaining unwell, general/logistical barriers to donating) to donating CCP. For both non-donors and donors, beliefs representing a moral and civic duty to donate were the most strongly endorsed motive for donation, while logistical concerns about donating were the most strongly endorsed barrier. Regression analyses showed that the motives and barriers accounted for 36% of variance in non-donors' intentions to donate CCP and 18% of variance in donors' intentions to re-donate. Having a stronger sense of gratitude and reciprocity, perceiving a duty to help, and viewing donating as a way to contribute were significantly positively related to intention for nondonors while concerns about impact of donating on self/ others and general fears about donating were negatively related. For CCP donors, only general fears about donating negatively predicted intention to re-donate CCP. Conclusions: Non-donors eligible to donate CCP are motivated and deterred by a complex array of beliefs that reflect concerns about their own and others wellbeing, a want to help and contribute, along with general barriers to donation. For existing CCP donors, only general barriers to donating predict their intention to continue donating. While these findings require replication, they highlight key beliefs that BCAs can target to recruit and retain non-donors eligible to donate CCP, but suggest that messaging to existing CCP donors should focus only on the process of donation rather than the reason for the donor's eligibility to donate.