Incentives for blood donors are heavily debated, but which incentives are offered by blood collectors around the globe? In our new paper we take stock of incentive policies across 63 countries and 50 U.S. states! We collected data on the type and value of incentives for whole blood donors by conducting 2 surveys among blood collectors. Additionally, we integrated incentive data from an existing study and the WHO, and examined blood collector websites and news releases.
Roughly half of the countries in our sample employ financial incentives, which include cash and tax benefits, but also less conventional incentives, such as healthcare supplements and raffles. Time off work is also commonly offered to blood donors and varies across blood collectors in duration and whether it is granted to all donors or only to those whose employer allows it. In stark contrast to WHO guidelines, half of the countries surveyed employ some kind of high-value incentive for blood donors. The incentives over the world can be found in Figure 1.
So, there is a lot of global diversity in blood donor incentives. Maintaining an adequate blood supply may require more realistic guidelines that are adapted to the local, cultural, and institutional context. Read more details in the paper!
Article reference:
Graf, C., Oteng-Attakora, K., Ferguson, E., Vassallo, R., Merz, E. M., & Biomedical Excellence for Safer Transfusion Collaborative. (2023). Blood Donor Incentives across 63 Countries: The BEST Collaborative Study. Transfusion Medicine Reviews, 150809.