Effective methods for reactivating inactive blood donors: a stratified randomized controlled study

Abstract

Background: Recruiting of sufficient numbers of donors of blood products is vital worldwide. In this study we assessed the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of telephone calls and SMS reminders for re-recruitment of inactive blood donors. Methods: This single-centre, non-blinded, parallel randomized controlled trial in Guangzhou, China included 11,880 inactive blood donors whose last donation was between January 1 and June 30, 2014. The donors were randomly assigned to either one of two intervention groups (received telephone or short message service [SMS] communications) or to a control group without intervention. SMS messages with altruistic appeal were adopted in the SMS group; in addition to altruistic appeal, reasons for deferral of blood donation were also asked in the telephone group. All participants were followed up for 1 year. The primary outcome were re-donation rates, compared by intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis, average treatment effect (ATE) and average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) estimations. Secondary outcomes were the self-reported deterrents. Other outcomes included the re-donation interval, and the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of telephone calls versus SMS reminders on re-recruitment. Results: ITT analysis discovered no significant differences in the re-donation rate among the three groups. ATE estimation showed that participants who were randomly assigned to the telephone group were more likely to re-donate than those in the SMS group. ATT estimations indicated that among compliers, telephone calls significantly increased re-donation compared to both SMS reminders and no intervention. Donor return behaviour was positively associated with receiving reminders successfully, being male, older age, and previous donation history. The SMS reminder prompted donors to return sooner than no reminder within 6 months, and according to ICER calculations, SMS reminders were more cost-effective than telephone calls. Donors reported time constraints as the most main causes of self-deferral in the telephone group, and altruistic appeal had a positive effect on these donors. Conclusions: Interventions to reactivate inactive blood donors can be effective, with telephone calls prompting more donors to return but at a greater cost than SMS messages. SMS reminder with altruistic appeal can urge donors to re-donate sooner within 6 months than no reminder.