A cross-sectional blood study in India: from donation activities of donors to blood bank services

The present article analyses the causal relationship between perception towards blood donation and expectations towards blood bank services with demographic characteristics such as gender, age, marital status, education and occupation. Factor analysis was initially performed to delineate the latent structure of perception configuring components of blood donation and expectations towards blood bank services followed by multivariate analysis of variance aimed at exploring their relationships with demographics. The study found that only gender had a significant impact on factors such as value and ethics, social bigotry, apprehension and social affinity in building perception towards blood donation. Also, gender had a significant impact on expectations of corporeal aspect of blood bank services. The study throws up the negative psyche such as social bigotry along with other various myths and fear prevailing in the society about blood donation. Therefore, the need of the hour is to target and run a customized awareness campaign based on societal needs and strata for promoting the benefits of blood donation. The government also needs to address the various lacunae in the system and improve the basic infrastructure, so as to make blood donation a more user-friendly exercise.