Italian health activities increasingly require the contribution of transfusion medicine.
Despite the fact that Italy as a whole has now reached self-sufficiency, regional differences in the availability of blood are still significant and critical situations are regularly reported in which the resources offered by voluntary donation may not be sufficient to cover the needs.
For this reason, understanding the meaning that Italian citizens attribute to donation, any doubts and concerns related to it and the motivations that can push Italian citizens to donate their blood is particularly important.
In this perspective, Observa, in collaboration with the National Blood Center, launched a cognitive investigation into donation and blood transfusion practices, in order to highlight the social perceptions and behavior of Italians towards transfusion medicine.
The survey is divided into two parts. The first part was dedicated to the realization of 5 focus groups, conducted between December 2008 and February 2009, aimed at exploring the dimensions of the main orientations towards donation and blood transfusion.
The second part concerns the monitoring of media coverage of the topic in the medium term. Through an extensive analysis of the archive of two national newspapers, La Repubblica and Il Corriere della Sera, it will be intended to highlight the ways in which the themes of donation and transfusion have been presented by the Italian media over the last 10 years and the role played by the national press in forming opinions, prejudices and beliefs around the topic.
