Awareness, Motivation, and Fear towards Canine Blood Donation—A Survey of Dog Owners in Lithuania

The recruitment of canine blood donors remains a challenge, especially in countries where blood donation and veterinary medicine are still emerging medical fields. There are few previous studies that have discussed canine blood donation strategies, and the subject of fear and its influencing factors have not been investigated. The main purpose of our study was to investigate dog owners’ awareness, motivation, and fear regarding canine blood donation in order to improve donor recruitment strategies. We created a six-page questionnaire and submitted it to dog owners (n = 207) in person. Two-thirds of the respondents (65.7%) were not aware that canine blood donation exists in Lithuania. We did not find any factors that would significantly affect the motivation of respondents toward donation. We found an association between the fear of the owner and the health status of the owned dog (p = 0.008), as well as if their animal had needed urgent care in the past (p = 0.031). The fact that some participants were blood donors themselves did not affect their motivation, but they were 19.76% less afraid of canine blood donation (p = 0.001), as were respondents who were aware of canine blood donation (p = 0.004). In conclusion, the recruitment strategy should focus on the management of fear toward canine blood donation and the education of clients, and donor welfare must remain a priority.

Development and Evaluation of a Library of TikToks to Support Recruitment of Committed Hematopoietic Stem Cell Donors from Needed Demographic Groups

Introduction TikTok is a rapidly growing social media platform that allows users to develop and share short videos. We hypothesized that a library of videos developed through TikTok (TikToks) would support the recruitment of committed hematopoietic stem cell donors from needed demographic groups (i.e. young, male, from diverse ancestries). Methods Members of the community of practice (CoP) in stem cell donor recruitment in Canada (facebook.com/groups/stemcellclub) were activated to develop TikToks. Training was provided during e-meetings of the CoP (8/2020, 1/2021, 5/2021) and in a video published online (stemcellclub.ca/training), highlighting the principles of effective TikTok design. These principles included the use of engaging hooks, music, and calls to action; short duration (< 30s); high educational value; and appeal to diverse donors. The training also outlined how to: record content, adjust clip lengths, apply audiovisual effects, and share across social media platforms. A CoP TikTok committee was formed to develop and review TikToks prior to publication. Following launch, we evaluated stakeholder perspective on these TikToks and the impact 1) across social and traditional media and 2) on eligible donors' knowledge and attitudes towards donation. Results Between 9/2020-7/2021, a network of TikTok channels was launched by CoP members, including a national donor recruitment TikTok library (tiktok.com/@stemcellclub). A total of 217 TikToks were produced across these channels (median length 17s, range 4-52s), covering a range of educational topics, designed for use in specific recruitment campaigns, and featuring unique video effects (Fig. A). The TikToks accumulated over 234,000 Views, 42,000 Likes, 3,000 Comments, and 14,200 Shares on TikTok, were republished by Canadian media outlets (e.g. CBC [twitter.com/cbcnewsbc/status/1361511367426080773], CTV News [ctvnews.ca/health/meet-the-women-hoping-to-recruit-more-stem-cells-donors-from-black-communities-1.5314038, ctvnews.ca/health/pride-month-tiktok-drive-encourages-stem-cell-donations-from-gay-bi-men-1.5475113], Victoria News [vicnews.com/news/most-black-canadians-wont-find-a-stem-cell-donor-in-time-this-group-is-working-to-change-that]) and were highlighted by major medical organizations (e.g. Canadian Blood Services [blood.ca/en/stories/meet-stem-cell-club, blood.ca/en/stories/stem-cell-club-volunteers-aim-save-lives-pride-month-campaign], American Association of Blood Banks [aabb.org/news-resources/news/article/2021/02/01/twitter-tiktok-aabb-virtual-journal-club-assesses-use-of-multimedia-resources-for-donor-recruitment]). 33 CoP members from 6 provinces across Canada, with a median of 2 years of recruitment experience, completed a post-launch survey. The majority felt that TikToks promote donation in an attention-grabbing way (94%), engage younger donors (100%), and teach key points in a short time period (94%). The majority were confident in their ability to make TikToks (63%), but felt they would benefit from additional training (63%). 46 eligible stem cell donors (from 12 different non-Caucasian ancestral groups; living in 5 provinces across Canada) completed surveys evaluating the impact of TikToks on their knowledge and attitudes towards donation. No participants were registered as donors and only four had a personal connection to an individual who needed a stem cell transplant. After being shown a series of TikToks, mean scores on a 6-question stem cell donation knowledge test improved from 59% to 73% (p=0.0012) (Fig. B); mean scores on a modified Simmons Ambivalence Scale decreased from 52% to 30% (p<0.0001) (Fig. C); and participants were more willing to register as donors (70% vs. 39%, p=0.0011). Participants reported that viewing TikToks positively impacted on their decision to register (87%), helped them understand stem cell donation (89%), and would help them talk about stem cell donation with friends/family (78%). Conclusions We report the first published experience using TikToks in a donor recruitment context. Our TikToks achieved significant social and traditional impact in a short period of time, and supported recruitment of committed stem cell donors from needed demographic groups. Our work is relevant to recruitment organizations worldwide seeking to modernize their recruitment approaches. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Help Is in Your Blood—Incentive to “Double Altruism” Resolves the Plasma Donation Paradox

Blood donation is considered as one of the purest forms of altruism. Plasma donation, in contrast, despite being a similar process, is mostly a paid activity in which donors are compensated for their contribution to the production of therapeutic preparations. This creates a so-called “plasma paradox:” If remuneration is promised for a socially useful effort, volunteers with altruistic motives might be deterred. At the same time, regular plasma donors who pursue the monetary benefits of donation might drop out if remuneration stops. The same controversy can be caught in the messages of most plasma donation companies as well: They promise a monetary reward (MR), and at the same time, highlight the altruistic component of donation. In this study, we tested the assumption that emphasizing the social significance enhances the willingness to donate blood plasma more effectively than either MR or the combination of these two incentives. This had to be rejected since there was no significant difference between the three scenarios. Furthermore, we also hypothesized that individuals might be more motivated to donate plasma if there is a possibility of offering an MR toward other socially beneficial aims. We found an increased willingness to donate in scenarios enabling “double altruism”, that is, when donating plasma for therapeutic use and transferring their remuneration to nongovernmental organizations, is an option. We propose relying on double altruism to resolve the plasma paradox, and suggest that it could serve as a starting point for the development of more optimized means for donor recruitment.

“It’s harder for the likes of us”: racially minoritised stem cell donation as ethico-racial imperative

How best are we to understand appeals to participate in a biomedical project that are based both on invoking shared racial identity, and on framing engagement as the clear moral course of action? Stem cell donor recruitment, which often focuses on engaging racially minoritised communities, provides useful insight into this question. This article proposes that it is not an essential mutual racial identity between the person asking and the person asked at play. Rather, it is the creative ‘doing’ of relatedness between people at the scale of race as well as family that coalesces into powerful appeals to participate. Through analysis of ethnographic, documentary and social media data, the paper argues that this work relies at least partly on framing donation as a duty of being part of a racialised community, which I describe here as an ethico-racial imperative, in which both race and responsibility become intertwined to compel participation in the biomedical project of donor registration.