Research leaders
Elizabeth Knight
National Clinical and Donor Research Manager
Donor Behaviour Research Group Donor Health and Wellbeing Research Group
Prof Barbara Masser
Joint Chair of Donor Research
Donor Behaviour Research Group Donor Health and Wellbeing Research Group
Dr Rachel Thorpe
Senior Research Fellow
Donor Behaviour Research Group Donor Health and Wellbeing Research Group
Current projects
How do donors feel throughout their donation?
Do you feel anxious before your donation? Proud afterwards? How you feel before, during and after your blood donation may affect whether you want to come back again. Through this study, we will gain a better understanding of how our donors feel throughout the process of their blood donation and how we can support their emotional wellbeing.
Calling young men!
For a number of reasons related to patient safety, we need more male donors than female, yet women are more inclined to become donors. Young men don't respond well to traditional recruitment methods, so this project will develop and test novel strategies to recruit more to our donor panel.
Helping donors make informed choices
Lifeblood is experiencing an increase in demand for plasma and plasma products, and therefore needs to increase the number of plasma donors. This project will develop and test written materials to provide the right amount of information about plasma donation to increase awareness among new blood donors.
Bringing back lapsed donors
Some people donate blood regularly, and then stop suddenly for all sorts of reasons (such as moving or having children). Previous studies at Lifeblood have shown that it’s easier to motivate these donors to start donating again than to recruit new donors. The study will particularly focus on three groups: donors who have experienced a temporary postponement, O negative donors and plasma donors. Researchers will interview lapsed donors and staff to help us understand why people stop donating blood, and how we can encourage them to return.
Targeting retention of first time O negative donors
In Australia, around a third of first-time blood donors never return. Why do they decide not to come back? This project tests an online psychological intervention designed to encourage new donors to make a second donation. The intervention was developed by Professor Christopher France at the University of Ohio. It will be trialled with Australian O negative donors: a critical group who can donate blood to patients of any blood type.
Selected publications
Frequent whole blood donors: understanding this population and predictors of lapse.
2016
Transfusion
doi:10.1111/trf.13874
Perceived deterrents to being a plasmapheresis donor in a voluntary, nonremunerated environment.
2013
Transfusion
53(5):1108-19 doi:10.1111/j.1537-2995.2012.03891.x
How can we encourage our voluntary non-remunerated donors to donate more frequently?
2016
ISBT Science Series
doi:10.1111/voxs.12312
Improving first-time donor attendance rates through the use of enhanced donor preparation materials.
2016
Transfusion
56(6 Pt 2):1628-35 doi:10.1111/trf.13496
Using an Extended Theory of Planned Behavior to Predict a Change in the Type of Blood Product Donated.
2015
Annals of behavioral medicine: a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine
49(4):510-21 doi:10.1007/s12160-014-9677-9
