Predicting Willingness to Donate Blood

New Zealand shares a common problem with other countries: a shortage of blood donors. Approximately 4% of New Zealand’s total population donate blood, yet up to 20% may need to receive donated blood or blood products. However, there has been little success in accurately predicting willingness to donate blood, and greater knowledge is needed of those variables most likely to predict potential donors’ behaviour, so that efforts to increase the number of blood donors can be effectively directed. This study compared the predictive ability of Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour, based on the measurement of attitudinal variables, and Labaw’s behavioural approach, in the context of willingness to donate blood. The findings indicated attitudinal variables were better predictors of behavioural intentions but a behavioural approach better predicted reported donation behaviour. This result provides support for further study of the framework proposed by Labaw.