Blood availability is a serious concern for most national health systems, including Italy. This makes increasingly necessary, on the one hand, to understand the motivations that can prevent people from donating blood and, on the other hand, to have an updated picture of how the issues of blood donation and transfusion are discussed in the public sphere and in the mass media.
In order to investigate these issues and provide guidance for policy choices and communication strategies, Observa is conducting research on behalf of the National Blood Center – the body of research and control of the National Health Institute for transfusion medicine. The study focuses on the public perception of blood donation and transfusion in Italy.
The first part of the research, just concluded, has been conducted through the realization of 5 focus groups, as well as through the analysis of daily press coverage on major Italian newspapers. The study allowed to define a typology of obstacles to blood donation, and to define, also in quantitative terms, the main ways through which the media debate and talk about donation and transfusion of blood in Italy.
Results from this research were presented in Rome, on the 14th June, 10:00 am, at the Adrian’s Temple, Square Pietra.
The second part of the research will be conducted through a survey on a representative sample of the Italian population, aimed at investigating the quantitative dimensions of the perception of blood donation and transfusion, besides deepening the understanding of risk perception in relation to blood transfusion.
