Knowledge, Motivations and Barriers Regarding Blood Donation Among Students in Different Undergraduate Majors

The present work aims to investigate barriers, motivations and perceptions as well as the role of students’ future profession with respect to their propensity to donate blood, in students enrolled in different university undergraduate majors: Nursing, Psychology and Economics. Considerable research has underscored that it is crucial to create publicity campaigns differentiated on the basis of target groups’ needs and characteristics. University students have been used in many studies to investigate motivations and barriers regarding blood donation, but their specific undergraduate majors have infrequently been studied. A self-report questionnaire was administered to 1,842 students in five different universities (Mean age = 23.27, SD = 5.04, females = 78.3%). The results show differences between the different typologies of the students investigated. Students in the Nursing major demonstrate more knowledge about donation and higher motivations to donate and perceive fewer barriers. They also acknowledge the greater relevance and responsibility existing between their academic major and blood donation. Economics students feel more distant from the world of donation while Psychology students occupy an intermediate position. These differences in knowledge and propensities underscore the necessity of evaluating formative/informative programs in relation to the target group in order to achieve maximum efficacy in interventions and to numerically increase donors of blood and blood products.