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Impact of Blood Donor Recruitment Campaigns on Voluntary Blood Donation Uptake among Young Adults in Nigeria

Abstract

Voluntary blood donation is essential for maintaining an adequate and safe blood supply for patients requiring transfusion during childbirth complications, trauma, surgery, severe anaemia, cancer treatment, and other medical emergencies. Despite the importance of blood donation, Nigeria continues to face challenges in recruiting and retaining sufficient numbers of voluntary blood donors. Young adults represent an important potential donor population because of their relatively large population and potential to become regular donors. However, inadequate awareness, fear of needles, misconceptions about blood donation, concerns about weakness or adverse effects, uncertainty about eligibility requirements, and limited exposure to convenient donation opportunities may discourage young adults from donating voluntarily. Blood donor recruitment campaigns provide an opportunity to increase awareness, address misconceptions, encourage first-time donation, and promote repeat voluntary donation through targeted communication and community mobilization. Against this background, this study investigates the impact of blood donor recruitment campaigns on voluntary blood donation uptake among young adults in Nigeria. The study will be anchored on the Health Belief Model, Social Cognitive Theory, and Social Marketing Theory. The Health Belief Model explains how young adults' perceptions of susceptibility, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, perceived severity, and cues to action may influence their decision to donate blood. Social Cognitive Theory emphasizes observational learning, peer influence, self-efficacy, reinforcement, and social interaction in shaping voluntary blood donation behaviour. Social Marketing Theory explains how audience-focused communication, appropriate messaging, perceived value, accessibility, and targeted promotional strategies can encourage health-related behaviours such as voluntary blood donation. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how blood donor recruitment campaigns may influence voluntary blood donation uptake among young adults in Nigeria. The study will adopt a quantitative quasi-experimental or analytical cross-sectional research design. The study population will comprise young adults aged 18–35 years residing in selected urban, semi-urban, and rural communities across Nigeria who meet applicable blood-donation eligibility requirements. A multistage sampling technique will be used to select geopolitical zones, states, local government areas, communities, youth organizations, tertiary institutions, and eligible participants. Blood donor recruitment campaigns will be assessed using indicators such as campaign frequency, duration, communication channels, campaign reach, exposure to blood donation messages, use of social media, community mobilization activities, peer recruitment, availability of educational materials, blood-donation reminders, campaign accessibility, and opportunities provided for immediate donation. Voluntary blood donation uptake will be assessed using indicators such as first-time blood donation, recent voluntary donation, frequency of donation, repeat donation, participation in blood drives, attendance at blood-donation centres following campaign exposure, willingness to donate in the future, and intention to become a regular donor. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, blood-donation knowledge and attitude assessment tools, blood donor registers, donation records where available, campaign attendance records, recruitment databases, and relevant blood-donation programme documents. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize participants' characteristics, campaign exposure, blood-donation knowledge, and donation uptake. Inferential statistical techniques, including chi-square tests, t-tests, correlation analysis, and logistic or multiple regression analysis where appropriate, will be used to determine the impact of blood donor recruitment campaigns on voluntary blood donation uptake. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, donation uptake before and after implementation of recruitment campaigns may be compared with that of a comparison group or community to determine changes associated with the intervention. Diagnostic tests will also be conducted to assess the reliability, validity, and robustness of the findings. The study is expected to find that blood donor recruitment campaigns have a significant positive impact on voluntary blood donation uptake among young adults in Nigeria. Young adults who are exposed to targeted and well-designed recruitment campaigns are expected to demonstrate higher rates of first-time and repeat voluntary blood donation than those with limited or no campaign exposure. Campaigns may increase awareness of the importance of voluntary blood donation, clarify donor eligibility requirements, address misconceptions, reduce fear, and provide information about convenient opportunities to donate. The use of social media, peer networks, youth organizations, educational institutions, community events, and mobile blood-donation drives may increase campaign reach and encourage young adults to participate. Recruitment campaigns that provide immediate opportunities to donate may be particularly effective because they reduce the gap between intention and actual donation. However, inadequate blood-donation facilities, inconvenient donation schedules, fear of needles, misconceptions about blood donation, negative previous experiences, limited trust in healthcare institutions, and insufficient follow-up of first-time donors may reduce the effectiveness of recruitment campaigns. The study therefore expects targeted, credible, culturally appropriate, and accessible blood donor recruitment campaigns to contribute significantly to improved voluntary blood donation uptake among young adults in Nigeria. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on blood donor recruitment, voluntary blood donation, blood transfusion services, health promotion, social marketing, youth health, community mobilization, and public health in Nigeria. The findings will provide useful information to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, National Blood Service Agency, state ministries of health, hospitals, blood transfusion centres, tertiary institutions, youth organizations, community health workers, blood-donor associations, development partners, and policymakers regarding effective strategies for increasing voluntary blood donation among young adults. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for developing targeted youth-focused blood donor recruitment campaigns, strengthening social-media-based donor recruitment, expanding mobile blood-donation drives, establishing convenient donation opportunities, developing repeat-donor reminder systems, addressing misconceptions and fears about blood donation, and strengthening donor engagement and retention programmes to improve the availability of safe blood across Nigeria.

Keywords: Blood donor recruitment campaigns, voluntary blood donation uptake, young adults, blood donation, blood transfusion services, donor recruitment, health promotion, social marketing, blood safety, Nigeria, public health.