Читать книгу Transfusion Medicine - Jeffrey McCullough - Страница 57

Although most Americans will require a blood transfusion at some time in their lives, it is said that less than 5% of the total population or less than 10% of those eligible to donate have ever done so, although there are no data to directly support this. A surprisingly limited portion of the US population is eligible [1–3]. Many donors give once or infrequently, and much of the nation’s blood supply comes from a small number of dedicated and frequent donors. Blood donors differ from the general population. The demographic characteristics or other factors related to the likelihood of an individual being a blood donor are age, marital status, gender, educational experience, occupation, peer pressure, humanitarianism, fear of the unknown, apathy, self‐esteem, race, social pressure, altruism, volunteerism, convenience, and community service [4–10]. These characteristics are described in more detail in the following subsections.