The impact of COVID-19 on blood donations

During a crisis, society calls for individuals to take prosocial actions that promote crisis management. Indeed, individuals show higher willingness to help after a disaster. However, the COVID-19 pandemic presents significant differences as it is an ongoing crisis that affects all individuals and has the potential to pose a direct health threat to anyone. Therefore, we propose that the pandemic may also negatively affect willingness to help, specifically blood donation intentions. It requires a high level of willingness to donate blood beyond the crisis outbreak, as more blood will be needed when postponed surgeries resume. When comparing blood donation intentions from a pre-pandemic study to results from a six-wave (bi-weekly) panel study conducted in Germany during the first pandemic phase (April to June 2020), we find lower medium and long-term blood donation intentions. While active donors show increased awareness of ability and eligibility to donate at the beginning of the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic, they feel significantly less able to donate as the pandemic progresses. Furthermore, inactive donors’ perceived ability to donate significantly decreases in the pandemic phase compared to the pre-pandemic phase. Crucially, both active and inactive donors feel less responsible and less morally obliged to donate, resulting in an overall negative pandemic effect on blood donation intentions. The COVID-19 pandemic compromises blood donations endangering the life-saving blood supply. These alarming results offer evidence-based grounds for practical implications for driving donations in the event of a pandemic

The impact of COVID-19 on Blood Donations - Diss. BV

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The Impact of COVID-19 On Blood Donations

During a crisis society calls for individuals to take prosocial actions that promote crisis management. Indeed, individuals show higher willingness to help after a disaster. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, presents significant differences, as it’s a long-term crisis that affects every individual, and poses a direct health threat. Therefore, we propose that the pandemic negatively affects willingness to help, specifically blood donation intentions. It requires a high level of willingness to donate blood beyond the crisis outbreak, as more blood is needed when postponed surgeries resume. When comparing blood donation intentions from a pre-pandemic study to results from a six-wave (bi-weekly) panel study conducted during the first pandemic phase (April to June 2020) in Germany, we find lower blood donation intentions, especially in the medium and long term. While active donors show increased awareness of ability and eligibility to donate at the beginning of the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic, they feel significantly less able to donate as the pandemic progresses. The perceived ability to donate of inactive donors significantly decreases in the pandemic phase compared to the pre-pandemic phase. Crucially, both active and inactive donors feel less responsible and less morally obliged to donate, leading to an overall negative pandemic effect on blood donation intentions. The COVID-19 pandemic compromises blood donations endangering the life-saving blood supply. These alarming results offer evidence-based grounds for practical implications on driving donations in the event of a pandemic

Does It Hurt or Does It Help? The Effect of Hedonic and Utilitarian Incentives on Prosocial Behavior

Paper "Does It Hurt or Does It Help? The Effect of Hedonic and Utilitarian Incentives on Prosocial Behavior " -Datensatz für Studie 1, 2, 3 -Fragebogen für Studie 1, 2, 3 -SPSS Skrip

The Impact of COVID-19 on Blood Donations

Paper "The Impact of COVID-19 on Blood Donations" -Datensatz -Fragebögen -R Skript -Publikatio

The role of affect, satisfaction, and internal drive on per-sonal moral norms during COVID-19

Societies require prosocial activities during crises. The COVID-19 pandemic presents individuals with unique challenges that may affect their emotional state leading to reformed personal moral norms. Crucially, personal moral norms are important predictors of moral behavior. Given the longevity of the pandemic, studying its impact on affect, satisfaction, and internal drive of (non-)donors during COVID-19 and if personal moral norms are affected is paramount

Validation of a standardized donor health questionnaire across substances of human origin

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: A donor health questionnaire (DHQ) aims to ensure the safety of donors and recipients of transfusions or transplantations with blood components, plasma-derived medicinal products, tissues, haematopoietic stem cells and medically assisted reproduction (in short substances of human origin; SoHO). Currently, many different DHQs exist across countries and SoHO. TRANSPOSE (TRANSfusion and transplantation PrOtection and SElection of donors) developed and validated a standardized DHQ to use across countries and SoHO. We tested whether participants understand the questions and provide honest answers. METHODS: For the validation of the standardized DHQ, two demographically representative online surveys were conducted in Germany (N = 3329) and Austria (N = 3432). We surveyed whether participants understood each DHQ question and would answer the questions truthfully. We used experimental settings to test whether there is a difference between mode of administration (print vs. online), the order of the questions (subject vs. chronological order), and the positioning of the general state of health question (beginning vs. end) in the DHQ. Using regression models, we tested the DHQ's impact on participant mood after completion and on socially desirable response behaviour. RESULTS: Participants understood the DHQ questions well and would answer them honestly. Nevertheless, the data show different levels of understanding and honesty when responding. Administration mode was the only characteristic that had a significant influence on mood, with the online version resulting in a more favourable mood in comparison to the printed version. CONCLUSION: The DHQ was well understood and had a low dishonest tendency. Our findings can serve as an impulse for further research on DHQ criteria across other SoHO and countries

Validation of a Standardized Donor Health Questionnaire across Substances of Human Origin

Paper "Validation of a Standardized Donor Health Questionnaire across Substances of Human Origin" -Datensatz für Study 1 und Study 2 -Fragebogen für Study 1 und Study 2 -SPSS Skript -Publikatio

Myocardial gene transfer by selective pressure-regulated retroinfusion of coronary veins: comparison with surgical and percutaneous intramyocardial gene delivery

ObjectivesWe sought to study adenoviral gene delivery using percutaneous selective pressure-regulated retroinfusion and to compare it directly with surgical and percutaneous intramyocardial delivery (PIMD) for the first time.BackgroundIntramyocardial delivery (IMD) has been recommended to be the preferred gene delivery strategy so far. However, surgical and percutaneous intramyocardial injection lead to incomplete retention of the injected viral vectors and to limited spatial myocardial distribution. Percutaneous selective pressure-regulated retroinfusion of the coronary veins was developed recently to provide an effective and more homogenous regional myocardial gene transfer.MethodsIn 15 pigs, adenoviral vectors (Ad2-CMV beta-galactosidase [β-gal] 5 × 109pfu) were applied via surgical IMD (n = 5), PIMD (n = 5), and selective pressure-regulated retroinfusion (n = 5). Seven days after gene transfer, myocardial β-gal expression was measured by ELISA.ResultsSelective retroinfusion into the anterior cardiac vein substantially increased reporter gene expression (1,039 ± 79 pg β-gal/mg protein) in the targeted left anterior descending coronary artery territory when compared with surgical (448 ± 127, p < 0.05) and PIMD (842 ± 145, p < 0.05). Both IMD approaches showed an inhomogenous β-gal expression, particularly along the injection sites, while retroinfusion resulted in a more homogenous transmural gene expression.ConclusionsPercutaneous selective pressure-regulated retroinfusion compares favorably with surgical and percutaneous intramyocardial injection techniques by providing a more homogenous and even more efficient adenoviral gene delivery