The impact of COVID-19 on blood donations

Abstract

During a crisis, society calls for individuals to take prosocial actions that promote crisis management. Indeed, individuals show higher willingness to help after a disaster. However, the COVID-19 pandemic presents significant differences as it is an ongoing crisis that affects all individuals and has the potential to pose a direct health threat to anyone. Therefore, we propose that the pandemic may also negatively affect willingness to help, specifically blood donation intentions. It requires a high level of willingness to donate blood beyond the crisis outbreak, as more blood will be needed when postponed surgeries resume. When comparing blood donation intentions from a pre-pandemic study to results from a six-wave (bi-weekly) panel study conducted in Germany during the first pandemic phase (April to June 2020), we find lower medium and long-term blood donation intentions. While active donors show increased awareness of ability and eligibility to donate at the beginning of the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic, they feel significantly less able to donate as the pandemic progresses. Furthermore, inactive donors' perceived ability to donate significantly decreases in the pandemic phase compared to the pre-pandemic phase. Crucially, both active and inactive donors feel less responsible and less morally obliged to donate, resulting in an overall negative pandemic effect on blood donation intentions. The COVID-19 pandemic compromises blood donations endangering the life-saving blood supply. These alarming results offer evidence-based grounds for practical implications for driving donations in the event of a pandemic.

Fig 1. Effect of COVID-19 on blood donation intentions.

(A) Comparison of reported mean values by blood donors (overall) between pandemic phase (t₁, 2020/04) and pre-pandemic (2019/04). Significant changes are marked. (B) Reported mean values by blood donors (overall) within the pandemic phase (t₁ to t₆). (C) Same as (A) only for active donors. (D) Same as (B) only for active donors. (E) Same as (A) only for inactive donors. (F) Same as (B) only for inactive donors. (G) Same as (A) only for non-donors. (H) Same as (B) only for non-donors.

Fig 2. Effect of COVID-19 on blood donor motivations.

(A) Comparison of reported mean values of personal moral norms (PMN), perceived impact (PI), and self-efficacy (SE) by blood donors (overall) between pandemic phase (t₁, 2020/04) and pre-pandemic phase (2019/04). Significant changes between waves are marked. (B) Reported mean values by blood donors within the pandemic phase (t₁ to t₆). (C) Same as (A) only for active donors. (D) Same as (B) only for active donors. (E) Same as (A) only for inactive donors. (F) Same as (B) only for inactive donors.