Women's Blood Donation: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Reasons for Non-Donation of Blood among Female Staff at Tehran Blood Transfusion Center

Authors

  • Gholamreza Toogeh 1,2 1 Blood Transfusion Research Center, High Institute for Research and Education in Transfusion Medicine, Tehran, Iran. 2 Thrombosis Hemostasis Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
  • Seyed Mohammad Mirrezaie 3* 3 Center for Health-Related Social and Behavioral Sciences Research, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran.
  • Seyed Morteza Tabatabaee 1
  • Hamid Reza Saber 1
  • Suzanne Hojjat-Assari 4 4 Head of Clinical Research at Medical Direction of French Transfusion Organization, Paris, France.
  • Mohammad Shariati 5 5 Owzan, Pharmaceutical department, Social Security Investment Company, Tehran, Iran.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22100/ijhs.v1i3.78

Keywords:

Women, FGD, Blood donation, Staff, Iran

Abstract

Background: The blood donation proportion of women to men is 1 to 9 in Iran. Lack of time, fear of needling and difficult access to donation sites were main reasons for not donating blood in previous studies. The aim of this study was to assess barriers of blood donation by women working in Tehran blood transfusion center.


Methods: To achieve the aim of this study we designed a qualitative research. The study population came from female personnel in Tehran Blood Transfusion Center (TBTC) they were recruited by qualitative purposeful sampling with no history of blood donation.

 

Results: Twenty-seven female personnel of TBTC aged 21-55 years old were entered to two focus group discussions. In the focus group discussion, knowledge of participants about the needs and importance of blood donation and donor acceptance criteria was desirable. There were common fears and beliefs about blood donation, similar to the results of  previous study in general female population, including weakness, concerns of having or developing anemia, fear of needling, being in reproductive age, menstruation cycle, pregnancy and childbearing stage. Some of participants believed that working in TBTC, especially in technical units, acts as a deterrent  For few females who worked in TBTC, concern of a positive test result either true or false was another cause of not blood donation. A few donors mentioned that derived plasma from female bloods was not used and also some others experienced complicated blood donation in clients. So they did not attempt to donate blood.

Conclusions: At first, it seemed that female staff working in TBTC might have different perceptions about blood donation because of greater awareness than women in the general community. However the results of this study showed that reasons of not donating blood in this group of women was not different from females in the general population.

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Published

2016-01-29

Issue

Volume 1, Issue 3, 2015

Section

Articles

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How to Cite

Women’s Blood Donation: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Reasons for Non-Donation of Blood among Female Staff at Tehran Blood Transfusion Center. (2016). International Journal of Health Studies (Undergoing Change to Shahroud Journal of Medical Sciences), 1(3), page:24-28. https://doi.org/10.22100/ijhs.v1i3.78