BLOOD DONORS: SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS (DATA FROM THE STUDY OF THE NATIONAL RESEARCH CENTER FOR HEMATOLOGY)
Background. Modern medicine and highly specialized care are impossible without a successfully functioning state blood donation system. Solving the practical problems of organizing voluntary donation in a single country requires research to identify and take into account its economic, national and law characteristics. At the moment, the sociodemographic characteristics of the current donor in Russia and the CIS remain poorly understood. The key indicators that should be measured in the first place are the following: socio-demographic characteristics of donors, factors that attract/ put off donors, donor motivation, and quality control of the donor organization.Aim. The purpose of the study was to determine the socio-demographic characteristics, some psychological characteristics and perceptions of donation among visitors to the blood donation service of the National Research Center for Hematology (Moscow, Russia).Materials and methods. The authors conducted a study of the characteristics of blood donors (n = 568).Results. Based on the results of the research, we describe a portrait of a modern donor: men and women from 20 to 25 years, mainly managers / specialists and students. The motivation of most donors can be described as prosocial (“humanistic”). The views on the donor, donor activity, the level of awareness of the problems of donorship in Russia among the respondents are detailed in the “Results” and “Discussion”. We provided data on the preferences of different types of compensation, the effectiveness of information dissemination channels and the degree of involvement in the activities of the service.Conclusion. Prospective directions of development of voluntary donation organization were discussed and the possibilities of conducting additional interdisciplinary research were considered in detail.