Blood Donor Competence, Autonomy and Relatedness Enhancement

Ohio University

Status and phase: Completed; Phase 3

Conditions: Blood Donors

Treatments: Behavioral: Autonomy; Behavioral: Relatedness; Behavioral: Competence

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT02717338

R01HL127766 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

NHLBI R01HL127766

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to determine whether enhancing blood donor competence, autonomy, and/or relatedness increases intrinsic motivation to donate and improves donor retention.

Full description

For health, safety, and economic reasons there is a critical need for novel approaches to enhance the retention of new blood donors. The current study examines an innovative, theory-driven approach to retention by promoting intrinsic motivation to donate again among new blood donors. Self-determination theory (SDT) proposes that people are more likely to persist with behaviors that are internally versus externally motivated, and considerable research supports the notion that more internalized motivation is associated with better adherence in a variety of health contexts. Similar findings have also been reported in the blood donation context where measures of the extent to which a donor identity has been internalized are positively related to both donation intention and future donation behavior. Based on prior work, the investigators propose to test a multi-component intervention designed to enhance one, two, or all three of the fundamental human needs that contribute to internal motivation according to SDT (i.e., competence, autonomy, relatedness). Using a full factorial design, first-time donors will be randomly assigned to a control condition or an intervention that addresses one, two, or all three of the fundamental needs. The primary aim is to determine whether the intervention conditions, alone and in combination, increase the likelihood of a donation attempt in the next year. The second aim is to examine intervention-specific increases in competence, autonomy, and relatedness as potential mediators of enhanced donor retention. Finally, an exploratory aim will examine an integrative model of motivation that views autonomy as a mediating influence on the more proximal, situational-level determinants of behavior (i.e., attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and intention).

Enrollment: 2,580 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 16 to 24 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• First-time whole blood donor with New York Blood Center;
• Eligible to donate again;
• Willing to be randomly assigned;
• Have, or be willing to establish, an active Facebook account.

Exclusion criteria

• History of more than one lifetime whole blood donation (with any blood center);
• Ineligible to donate again (based on New York Blood Center donor eligibility determination);
• Unwilling to be randomly assigned;
• Unwilling to sign up for closed Facebook group, if randomly assigned.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Factorial Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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2,580 participants in 8 patient groups

Competence

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will be assigned to review our donor coping website.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Competence

Autonomy

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will be assigned to receive a brief telephone interview.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Autonomy

Relatedness

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will be asked to join a closed Facebook group for one month.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Relatedness

Competence + Autonomy

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will be assigned to the web site review, followed by the brief telephone interview.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Competence

Behavioral: Autonomy

Competence + Relatedness

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will be assigned to the web site review, followed by the one-month Facebook group membership.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Relatedness

Behavioral: Competence

Autonomy + Relatedness

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will be assigned to the brief telephone interview, followed by the one-month Facebook group membership.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Relatedness

Behavioral: Autonomy

Competence + Autonomy + Relatedness

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will be assigned to the web site review, brief telephone interview, and one-month Facebook group membership.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Relatedness

Behavioral: Competence

Behavioral: Autonomy

Treatment-as-Usual Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants will receive the standard communications that New York Blood Center has with all first-time donors.