Rate of Response

The rate of response of donors to the non-factual questions and particularly questions 4-5 was influenced mainly by the time available for donors to complete the questionnaire. This effect was more noticeable in the response to question 5, where answers of necessity had to be first considered and then put into words than in question 4 where the check-list provided afforded an easy solution for those with limited time.

The differences in the conduct of the survey between the General Public sessions and the Institutional and Defence Services sessions which resulted in I. and D.S. donors being left with a limited amount of time has already been noted.1 The effect of these differences is indicated below:

An analysis of the response rates of other sub-sets of the sample did not indicate that there was any appreciable difference in the response rates of donors with different demographic and social characteristics.

The Questions

Two questions in the questionnaire were aimed at eliciting answers concerning the reasons blood donors have for giving blood:

Q. 4. Please tick on the list below the main reason why you give blood?

• (a) General desire to help people

• (b) To repay in some way a transfusion given to someone I know

• (c) In response to an appeal for blood

• (d) Some of my friends/colleagues give blood and encouraged me to join them

• (e) Another reason (please state)

Q. 5. Could you say why you first decided to become a blood donor?

The choice of questions, in retrospect, was unfortunate, in that many donors were confused by the wording and clearly did not understand what sort of answers were expected.2 The general idea behind the choice of questions was to elicit, in response to question 4, the main motives blood donors have for giving and continuing to give blood; and in response to question 5 to discover what factors had been instrumental in influencing the donors’ original decision to give blood. The wording of the questions was chosen accordingly and the check-list for question 4 was taken from an American Red Cross survey in the hope that some comparative data would be obtained.