Missing Minorities – A survey based description of the current state of minority blood donor recruitment across 23 countries

Abstract

What is known?1. Due to increasing migration, blood collection establishments are increasingly required to supply blood for patients from different ethnic backgrounds 2. People from minority groups are generally less actively involved in the blood supply than people from the indigenous population 3. Different ethnic groups can differ in blood group and tissue antigen expression, which can cause alloimmunisation if donor and patient are not from the same ethnic background What this paper adds1. Knowledge on the proportion of ethnic minority groups in the donor panels in 23 countries 2. Knowledge on current and expected shortages in blood supply in 42 blood supply establishments, with a focus on shortages due to ethnic diversity 3. A first inventory of methods used to recruit minority donors, including barriers and obstacles to recruitment ABSTrACT 1. Stable national blood supplies from donated human blood are essential to healthcare services worldwide. Migration has increased over the last years and so more and larger minority groups require blood products in their new countries, often with special characteristics that are not present in the majority population. In many countries however, minorities are less active in blood donations. The Missing Minorities (MIMI) project was initiated by the European Blood Alliance to investigate the problem of low donation rates among minorities. The MIMI project group surveyed 42 blood donation organisations worldwide. The results show a great awareness of the topic, but it is also evident that the applied management strategies are at a very early stage in many countries and that many blood donation organisations in Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States are not yet very successful in recruiting and retaining donors from minority groups. This paper also reports on the different methods of minority blood donor recruitment which have been used by the organisations. These methods require more systematic research in order to verify the findings of the most successful strategies identified in this paper. Overall, this paper can be seen as a first step towards better recruitment methods by showing the current situation, but it is also as a call for more research on the topic.

Trends in US minority red blood cell unit donations

“…These minority recruitment programs encompassed a range of initiatives, including materials and websites in non-English languages, targeting minority communities through specific marketing materials, direct community engagement, education campaigns to highlight specific blood needs, group sponsorship, and multilingual and representative staff. 3,13,14 This study has a number of limitations. First, only eight blood collectors participated.…”

Who donates? Cross‐country and periodical variation in blood donor demographics in Europe between 1994 and 2014

“…However, given the lack of alternatives, no other variable would allow us to study blood donation patterns in such a wide range of countries and over time. Third, although migration has been recognized as an important demographic shift for the collection of blood in Europe, the Eurobarometer lacks systematic data to take this into account. Only 2% of respondents in our sample indicated they were born in a country different from their country of residence, and the reported status only allows the inclusion of first‐generation immigrants.…”

Barriers and motivators of Ghanaian and African‐Surinamese migrants to donate blood

“…The recruitment and retention of blood donors from various ethnic backgrounds is increasingly important for an adequate supply of blood. However, in many Western countries, migrant minorities are underrepresented in the blood donor pool (van Dongen, Mews, de Kort, & Wagenmans, ). This underrepresentation presents a problem, since ethnic diversity in Western society is growing and some minority groups differ in extended blood typing compared to a country's majority population (Reid, Lomas‐Francis, & Olsson, ).…”