You are on page 1of 5

BACKGROUND Blood is a rich product which can be broken down into many parts.

Its main components are red cells, platelets and plasma, and the plasma itself contains a variety of proteins. All of these substances have different uses and patients will need different components depending on their own blood type and on their condition. For instance, an anaemic person will only require red cells, while a haemophiliac needs clotting factors from plasma. Red cells last only 35 days and platelets only 5 days, so a regular supply of fresh blood is vital. Just one half litre of donated blood can help save as many as three peoples lives. There are four main blood types: A, B, AB and O. AB is the universal recipient and O negative is the universal donor. Blood centres often run short of type O and B blood. While a given individual may be unable to donate, he or she may be able to recruit a suitable donor. Blood banks are always in need of volunteers to assist at blood draws or to organize blood drives. Much of today's medical care depends on a steady supply of blood from healthy donors. A blood donation is when a healthy person voluntarily has blood drawn. The blood is used for transfusions or made into medications by a process called fractionation. In the developed world, most blood donors are unpaid volunteers who give blood for a community supply. In poorer countries, established supplies are limited and donors usually give blood when family or friends need a transfusion. Many donors donate as an act of charity, but some are paid and in some cases there are incentives other than money such as paid time off from work. A donor can also have blood drawn for their own future use. Donating is relatively safe, but some donors have bruising where the needle is inserted or may feel faint. Potential donors are evaluated for anything that might make their blood unsafe to use. The screening includes testing for diseases that can be transmitted by a blood transfusion, including HIV and viral hepatitis. The donor is also asked about medical history and given a short physical examination to make sure that the donation is not hazardous to his or her health. How often a donor can give varies from days to months based on what he or she donate and the laws of the country where the donation takes place. The amount of blood drawn and the methods vary, but a typical donation is 500 milliliters (or approximately one US pint) of whole blood. The collection can be done manually or with automated equipment that only takes specific portions of the blood. Most of the components of blood used for transfusions have a short shelf life, and maintaining a constant supply is a persistent problem.

Blood donations are divided into groups based on who will receive the collected blood. An allogeneic (also called homologous) donation is when a donor gives blood for storage at a blood bank for transfusion to an unknown recipient. A directed donation is when a person, often a family member, donates blood for transfusion to a specific individual. Directed donations are relatively rare. A replacement donor donation is a hybrid of the two and is common in developing countries such as Malaysia. In this case, a friend or family member of the recipient donates blood to replace the stored blood used in a transfusion, ensuring a consistent supply. When a person has blood stored that will be transfused back to the donor at a later date, usually after surgery, that is called an autologous donation. Blood that is used to make medications can be made from allogeneic donations or from donations exclusively used for manufacturing. The actual process varies according to the laws of the country, and recommendations to donors vary according to the collecting organization. The World Health Organization gives recommendations for blood donation policies, but in developing countries many of these are not followed. For example, the recommended testing requires laboratory facilities, trained staff, and specialized reagents, all of which may not be available or too expensive in developing countries. An event where donors come to give allogeneic blood is sometimes called a blood drive or a blood donor session. These can occur at a blood bank but they are often setup at a location in the community such as a shopping center, workplace, school, or house of worship. There are two main methods of obtaining blood from a donor. The most frequent is simply to take the blood from a vein as whole blood. This blood is typically separated in to parts, usually red blood cells and plasma, since most recipients need only a specific component for transfusions. The other method is to draw blood from the donor, separate it using a centrifuge or a filter, store the desired part, and return the rest to the donor. This process is called a pheresis, and it is often done with a machine specifically designed for this purpose. For direct transfusion save in can be used but the blood may be taken from an artery instead. In this case, the blood is not stored and is pumped directly from the donor into the recipient. This was an early method for blood transfusion and is rarely used in modern practice. It was phased out during World War II because of problems with logistics, and doctors returning from treating wounded soldiers setup banks for stored blood when they returned to civilian life. The most common method is collecting the blood from the donors vein into a container. The amount of blood drawn varies from 200 milliliters to 550 milliliters depending on the country, but 450-500 milliliters is typical. The blood is usually stored in a plastic bag that also contains sodium citrate, phosphate, dextrose, and

sometimes adenine. This combination keeps the blood from clotting and preserves it during storage. Other chemicals are sometimes added during processing. The plasma from whole blood can be used to make plasma for transfusions or it can also be processed into other medications using a process called fractionation. This was a development of the dried plasma used to treat the wounded during World War II and variants on the process are still used to make a variety of other medications. The World Health Organization set a goal in 1997 for all blood donations to come from unpaid volunteer donors, but as of 2006, only 49 of 124 countries surveyed had established this as a standard. Plasma pheresis donors in the United States are still paid for donations. A few countries rely on paid donors to maintain an adequate supply. Some countries have made great strides in moving towards this standard, with 20 percent of donors in 2005 being unpaid volunteers and 80 percent in 2007, but 68 of 124 countries surveyed by WHO had made little or no progress. In some countries, for example Brazil, it is against the law to receive any compensation, monetary or otherwise, for the donation of blood or other human tissues. In patients prone to iron overload, blood donation prevents the accumulation of toxic quantities. Blood banks in the United States must label the blood if it is from a therapeutic donor, so most do not accept donations from donors with any blood disease. Others, such as the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, accept blood from donors with hemochromatosis. It is a genetic disorder that does not affect the safety of the blood. Donating blood may reduce the risk of heart disease for men, but the link has not been firmly established. Other incentives are sometimes added by employers, usually time off for the purposes of donating. Blood centers will also sometimes add incentives such as assurances that donors would have priority during shortages and there are other programs such as prize drawings for donors and rewards for organizers of successful drives. Most allogeneic blood donors donate as an act of charity and do not expect to receive any direct benefit from the donation.

MARKET SEGMENTATION

Currently, the United States suffers from a gap between supply and demand for blood. Although someone needs a blood transfusion every two seconds, fewer than five percent of eligible Americans donate annually. The seriousness of this problem urges both campaign practitioners to keep recruiting more donors for blood donation and researchers to examine theoretical foundations that predict the donation behavior. Particularly, in developing campaigns for blood donation, the appropriate grouping of a target audience is also

imperative for obtaining successful results, so that campaigners should subdivide their audiences using specific categories. By using J. Grunig's audience segmentation concepts and expanding the predictors in the theory of planned behavior, this study investigated the differences between blood donors and non-donors for effective blood donor segmentation strategies. The study utilized two methods: 1) a national survey dataset to look at the effects of demographic, geographic, and psychographic variables on blood donation behavior; and 2) a college survey to examine the determinants of attitudes and behavioral intention of blood donation. Using binary logistic regressions, the findings of the study revealed that the differences between the donors and non-donors could be determined by age, education, healthy activity, religiosity, knowledge, fear, attitude, and self-efficacy. These findings provide campaigners for blood donation with insight to design effective messages and strategies in some aspects such as traditional audience segmentation strategies based on demographics, psychographics, or geographics; and theory-based campaign strategies for blood donation promotion that can be developed by determinants of attitudinal and behavioral variables. Learning Objectives: List the demographics, psychographics, and geographics as well as determinants of attitudinal and behavioral variables for blood donation. Identify what factors can determine individuals blood donation behavior. Develop audience segmentation strategies for blood donation promotion by identifying the characteristics of donors and non-donors.

Market segmentation is a tool to help governments and private sector suppliers better coordinate their efforts, leading to more sustainable programs and rationale use of resources. It is widely used in the commercial arena as companies seek to learn more about their existing and potential clients and target their resources more efficiently. Market segmentation holds similar benefits for contraceptive commodities and services. Experts define market segmentation differently; however, the underlying theme is the same. The text box below provides examples of several definitions from key experts and stakeholders.

In the case of (social marketing) or blood donation, is a process which promotes blood donation. It serves both to inform the population and to change attitudes towards blood donation so that more will members of the community will become blood donors

Who are the potential customers? What are they like? Where can I find them? How can I reach them?

Demographic segmentation: dividing consumer groups according to

characteristics such as sex, age, income, occupation, education, household size, and stage in the family life cycle
http://www.scribd.com/doc/45737266/Blood-Donation

You might also like