[Factors associated with the intention to donate blood in patients of a hospital in Peru].

Objective: Research on factors that modify the intention to donate blood voluntarily in the general population in Peru is scarce, and most of it are focused on health science personnel. The aim of the present study was to estimate the factors associated with the intention to donate blood in patients attending an outpatient clinic in a hospital in northern Peru.

Methods: A prospective unpaired study of cases (n=185) and controls (n=185) was designed. A case was defined as a patient who responded "if I would voluntarily donate blood in the future" to the initial filter question. The response variable was intention to donate blood and the exposure variables were sex, age, marital status, educational level, employment status, monthly income, religion, donation practices, and knowledge about donation. In addition, the motivations for blood donation were explored. To identify the associated factors, crude odds ratios (ORc) were calculated by means of generalized linear models, using the Poisson family, log link function and robust models; then the variables that showed a significant statistical association were adjusted by multivariate analysis, adjusting for sociodemographic variables, and the adjusted odds ratios (ORa) were obtained.

Results: In the multivariate analysis, male sex (ORa=1.37), having a high monthly income (ORa=1.26), professing the catholic religion (ORa=5.27), having a higher score in the knowledge questionnaire (ORa=1.04), having previously donated (ORa=1.64) and having a family member who had previously donated (ORa=1.72) increased the probability of intention to donate blood. On the other hand, older age (ORa=0.97) decreased said probability.

Conclusions: Several factors associated with the intention to donate blood are identified, most of which were similar to previous studies. It is highlighted that a high level of knowledge, as well as previous donation experiences, increase the intention to donate blood.