Learning to Donate

Not only in the Netherlands but in many other European countries, the general population is ageing. This means that in the future, more people are going to need blood products as part of their medical treatments. Additionally, there is a pressing need to diversify our donor base to include more individuals from ethnic minority groups. The current donor pool does not adequately reflect the ethnic diversity of the population. An ethnically representative blood donor pool is vital for healthcare providers, enabling effective matching of donors and recipients. Not only this but both at the local (the Netherlands) and European levels we are facing a shortage of plasma. How can we ensure a stable, representative and sustainable blood and plasma donor pool?

One of the main barriers that people face when it comes to blood products donation is lack of awareness, meaning that people are not donating blood or plasma because they don't know that they are needed as donors, or they don't know for example what plasma is. Thus, in the Learning to Donate (Learn-Do) project we are focusing on studying how people learn to donate and we develop, and test interventions aimed at increasing knowledge about blood and plasma donation. For more details on this project, please visit https://www.donor-research.org.