Plasma blood donors studied in research project

Australia is spending $31 million a year importing a critical blood product used to treat a range of neurological, hematological and immunological disorders.

This plasma-derived product, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg), is in high demand due to the small number of local plasma donors.

In a world-first, a multidisciplinary team of researchers from three Australian universities in conjunction with the Australian Red Cross Blood Service are seeking to understand how to effectively recruit and retain plasma donors in a voluntary, non-remunerated system.

Led by Associate Professor Barbara Masser from UQ’s School of Psychology, the research aims to gain a deeper insight into donors’ reasons for conversion and sustained plasma donation behaviour.

“Very little is known about why people choose to donate plasma," Associate Professor Masser said.

"There is only scant local and international literature on donor behaviour and motivation.

“On this basis and working in collaboration with the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, we talked directly to donors to investigate what triggers an individual to donate plasma for the first time and factors associated with continuing donations.

“We also sought to identify key barriers that deter people from donating this vital product.”

The research team carried out a number of focus group meetings and in-depth individual interviews exploring donors’ beliefs, expectations and experiences of plasma donation using a semi-structured interview schedule.

Three different donor groups were interviewed: those who donated whole blood but had declined to donate plasma; those who commenced donating plasma but had returned to donating whole blood; and those who donated plasma then lapsed from donating altogether.

Associate Professor Masser said the research findings presented common themes.

“It became apparent that donors had similar reasons for choosing to donate or not to donate plasma," she said.

“As the process of donating plasma can take considerably longer than donating whole blood (approximately 10–15 minutes for whole blood compared with closer to an hour for plasma), a key reported deterrent was the greater donation time, increasing both the inconvenience and physical costs (e.g. needle insertion discomfort) of donating.

“However, results indicated that sustained donation can be encouraged by the establishment of a regular schedule, and that the positive interactions with collection staff enhance donors’ subjective wellbeing.”

Research results will be used to provide information to better educate the donating and non-donating public on the importance of donating plasma.

Understanding the deterrents to plasma donations allows blood collection agency staff to focus on addressing and minimising such issues.

In turn this will facilitate greater conversion of whole blood donors to plasma donors and support Australia in becoming self-sufficient in meeting the local demand for life-saving plasma-derived products.

The research team included Associate Professor Masser, Professor Katherine White (School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology), Associate Professor Liliana Bove (Department of Management and Marketing, University of Melbourne) and Professor Deborah Terry (The University of Queensland) with Associate Professor David Irving (Research and Development, Australian Red Cross Blood Service).

Media: Associate Professor Barbara Masser (School of Psychology), email b.masser@psy.uq.edu.au, phone 3365 6373 or 0437 401 837 or Helen Burdon (Marketing and Communications, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences), email h.burdon@uq.edu.au, phone 3346 9279.