The impact of COVID-19 on blood donations

PLoS One. 2022 Mar 24;17(3):e0265171. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265171. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

During a crisis, society calls for individuals to take prosocial actions that promote crisis management. Indeed, individuals show higher willingness to help after a disaster. However, the COVID-19 pandemic presents significant differences as it is an ongoing crisis that affects all individuals and has the potential to pose a direct health threat to anyone. Therefore, we propose that the pandemic may also negatively affect willingness to help, specifically blood donation intentions. It requires a high level of willingness to donate blood beyond the crisis outbreak, as more blood will be needed when postponed surgeries resume. When comparing blood donation intentions from a pre-pandemic study to results from a six-wave (bi-weekly) panel study conducted in Germany during the first pandemic phase (April to June 2020), we find lower medium and long-term blood donation intentions. While active donors show increased awareness of ability and eligibility to donate at the beginning of the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic, they feel significantly less able to donate as the pandemic progresses. Furthermore, inactive donors' perceived ability to donate significantly decreases in the pandemic phase compared to the pre-pandemic phase. Crucially, both active and inactive donors feel less responsible and less morally obliged to donate, resulting in an overall negative pandemic effect on blood donation intentions. The COVID-19 pandemic compromises blood donations endangering the life-saving blood supply. These alarming results offer evidence-based grounds for practical implications for driving donations in the event of a pandemic.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Blood Donors*
  • COVID-19* / epidemiology
  • Germany / epidemiology
  • Humans
  • Intention
  • Pandemics

Grants and funding

The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. We wish to note that Sinika Studte receives a scholarship from the German Red Cross Blood Donation Services. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.