Authors: Thelma T Goncalez Ester C Sabino Sanny Chen Nanci Alves Salles Dalton A F Chamone Willi McFarland Edward L Murphy
Publish Date: 2008/04/04
Volume: 12, Issue: 1, Pages: 39-
Abstract
Recruiting safe volunteer blood donors requires understanding motivations for donating and knowledge and attitudes about HIV We surveyed 1600 persons presenting for blood donation at a large blood bank in São Paulo Brazil using a selfadministered structured questionnaire and classified motivations into three domains as well as categorizing persons by HIV testseeking behavior Motivations in descending order and their significant associations were “altruism” female gender volunteer donor and repeat donor status “direct appeal” female gender repeat donor status and age 21–50 years “selfinterest” male gender age under 20 years firsttime donor status and lower education HIV testseekers were more likely to give incorrect answers regarding HIV risk behavior and blood donation and the ability of antibody testing to detect recent HIV infections Altruism is the main motivator for blood donation in Brazil other motivators were associated with specific demographic subgroups HIV testseeking might be reduced by educational interventionsThis study was supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health to Dr Murphy K24HL75036 the University of California San FranciscoGladstone Institute of Virology Immunology Center for AIDS Research P30AI27763 and the University of California Berkeley Fogarty International AIDS Training Program D43TW00905 and by Blood Systems Research Institute We wish to acknowledge the support of the University of California San Francisco Center for AIDS Prevention Studies US National Institute of Mental Health NIMH P30 MH062246 AIDS International Training in Research Program AITRP Fogarty International Center D43TW00003 and the International Clinical Operational and Health Services Research Training Award ICOHRTA Brazil Scientists Program Fogarty International Center D43TW005799
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