Motivating Factors of Blood Donation Among South Central Appalachian Adolescents

The demand of blood products in the US is expected to rise over the years. Adolescents represent a potential population of eligible donors and it is fundamental to better understand what influences blood donation among this category of population. Such investigation has not been conducted in the Appalachian region. To elucidate the question, a voluntary and anonymous questionnaire was administered to high school students from five counties of South Central Appalachia. A sample of 568 adolescents were asked to provide demographic characteristics, blood donation status and to rate various motivating factors. The association between blood donation and motivating factors were analyzed using logistic regression. Caucasians were the most represented ethnicity in the study population with 94.52%. From the total respondents, 37.85% reported being blood donors with an average age of 17.29 years. Among the donors, 51.66% were females and 55.45% came from low socio-economic class families. Emergency involving someone they care about and personal story of someone whose life was saved by blood donation were the top rated motivating factors by the donors with respective frequencies of 76.74% and 72.09%. Adjusting for the gender, age and socio-economic status, donating blood with friends increased the likelihood of blood donation by 53.2% (95% confidence interval: 1.01 – 2.31). These finding suggest that strategies focused on promoting group donation such as during school events may increase the rate of blood donation.