Factors that Affect Willingness to Donate Blood for the Purpose of Biospecimen Research in the Korean American Community

Abstract

Objective: Biorepositories have been key resources in examining genetically-linked diseases, particularly cancer. Asian Americans contribute to biorepositories at lower rates than other racial groups, but the reasons for this are unclear. We hypothesized that attitudes toward biospecimen research mediate the relationship between demographic and healthcare access factors, and willingness to donate blood for research purposes among individuals of Korean heritage. Methods: Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were utilized to characterize the sample with respect to demographic, psychosocial, and behavioral variables. Structural equation modeling with 5000 re-sample bootstrapping was used to assess each component of the proposed simple mediation models. Results: Attitudes towards biospecimen research fully mediate associations between age, income, number of years lived in the United States, and having a regular physician and willingness to donate blood for the purpose of research. Conclusion: Participants were willing to donate blood for the purpose of research despite having neutral feelings towards biospecimen research as a whole. Participants reported higher willingness to donate blood for research purposes when they were older, had lived in the United States longer, had higher income, and had a regular doctor that they visited. Many of the significant relationships between demographic and health care access factors, attitudes towards biospecimen research, and willingness to donate blood for the purpose of research may be explained by the extent of acculturation of the participants in the United States.

Church-Based Recruitment to Reach Korean Immigrants: An Integrative Review

“…There were four stages of the recruitment process which included initiation, endorsement, advertisement, and implementation (Table 2). The majority of studies described several strategies for church-based recruitment; however, only four studies described strategies that incorporated all four stages in their recruitment protocol (Bastani et al, 2015; Juon et al, 2003; Yen, Davey, & Ma, 2014; Yi & Bjorck, 2014). Each stage is discussed in detail in the following section.…”

“…Through this process, researchers were able to identify eligible participants. In two studies, the researchers sought a more reciprocal relationship with churches by working closely with pastors or church staffs (Juon et al, 2006; Yen et al, 2014).…”

Willingness of volunteers from Canadian Blood Service's Stem Cell Registry to donate blood, marrow, and other tissues for regenerative therapy

“…Additionally, we received very few responses from some jurisdictions within Canada (only three respondents from the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut combined), and we were not able to analyze differences in responses based on cultural or ethnic background due to the number of responses. We know from other surveys conducted specifically on minority populations, such as African Americans and Asian Americans, that their responses to concerns regarding biobanking can differ significantly from the general trend . Moreover, it is possible that a small minority of respondents may be eligible only for marrow or peripheral blood stem cell donation due to particular aspects of their health history, which could impact their participation in a collection to support regenerative therapy.…”

“…We know from other surveys conducted specifically on minority populations, such as African Americans and Asian Americans, that their responses to concerns regarding biobanking can differ significantly from the general trend. [12][13][14] Moreover, it is possible that a small minority of respondents may be eligible only for marrow or peripheral blood stem cell donation due to particular aspects of their health history, which could impact their participation in a collection to support regenerative therapy.…”

Biospecimen Donation in Biobank Construction: Aspects Affecting Donation and Publics’ Concern

“…Therefore, according to the previous questionnaire [8][9][10][11], we designed a questionnaire for people who had highly educated and can understand the survey. The purpose of this study was to assess the impacting factors of participation tendency in healthy youth when facing biospecimen collection projects.…”