Motivation and perceived barriers of blood donation: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

The level of voluntary blood donation has decreased and raising the number of donors can be a challenge. Identifying individuals' motives to donate blood could aid this process. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 participants (six donors and six non-donors) to investigate motivations and perceived barriers to donate blood. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis revealed three interconnecting themes, described under the headings of 'supernatural powers', 'nothing ventured nothing gained' and 'being (a) part'. The findings suggest that personal beliefs, weighing costs and benefits of one's actions and perceived social norms influence people's intentions to participate in blood-recruitment interventions. There were no major differences found in the accounts of donors and non-donors, suggesting that findings are applicable to interventions for general populations.