’Your Blood Donation Has Been Used’--How Feed Messages Motivate Blood Donors

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Photo: UHH/Oster Blood reserves are desperately needed
Photo: UHH/Oster Blood reserves are desperately needed
In Germany, 14,000 blood donations per day are needed for operations, accident victims, and patients with immunological disorders. But how can we motivate people to donate blood? A new study shows how blood banks can text message blood donors with information about the use of their donation-and how well it works.

Donating blood helps people in emergencies and saves lives. Even if the number of donors increased in 2021, blood reserves are desperately needed.

An international team of researchers at Universität Hamburg, RU Groningen (Netherlands), and Penn State University (USA) have shown in a new study that feed messages have a positive effect on the behavior of blood donors.

Within the scope of their joint research, the authors and the Nord-Ost blood donation service of the German Red Cross (DRK) and the Austrian Red Cross have shown in several field studies that this approach led to a 10 percent increase in the number of donations and a 12 percent increase in the probability that inactive donors can be reactivated. In Austria and several other countries, donors now receive a feed message when their donation has been used: -Thank you for donating blood! Today it was delivered to a patient at (University Hospital Vienna).- They also receive

Michel Clement, professor in the Faculty of Business Administration (Hamburg Business School) and co-director of the Red Cross research cooperation on blood donation management: -The communication about the the use of the last donation is important and signalizes to the donors that the blood donation bank is invested in their relationship, which ultimately leads to better rates of blood donations.-

Original publication:

Shehu, Edlira, Besarta Veseli, Michel Clement, Karen Page Winterich, (2023 ): Improving Blood Donor Retention and Donor Relationships with Past Donation Use Appeals , Journal of