Increasing Blood Diversity: How Blood Center Websites Tackle Critical Blood Shortages for Sickle Cell Patients through Recruitment of African-American Donors

Authors

• AE Lee
• AJ Swift
• EC Mansell
• E Winnicki
• E Li
• CC Robertson
• T Huynh
• N Narisu
• C Krilow
• MR Erdos
• FS Collins
• LL Bonnycastle

Abstract

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a life-threatening condition that affects 1/500 African-Americans. Patients with SCD
rely on transfusions from closely-matched healthy blood donors of similar ethnicity; however, African Americans are under-represented among blood donors due to multiple complex factors including mistrust
of medical systems. Blood center websites are a "virtual interface" with the community that may convey the
need for African-American persons to donate blood for SCD patients. We selected 12 blood systems or centers in 3 categories (large blood systems, regional systems, and
hospital-based blood centers). A popular search engine was mined using the name of each blood
center and the keywords "sickle cell disease" and "African-American" to identify websites. An inductive
approach was used to analyze commonalities, differences, patterns, and themes in the study findings. Only 5/12 websites explained the role of red blood cell antigens in providing matched
blood for SCD patients. 83% of evaluated websites included testimonials from patients, 42% included
interviews from medical professionals, and 58% included a specific “call to action”, inviting African-Americans
to donate blood for patients with SCD. Hospital-based blood centers were least likely
(43.8%). Most blood center websites specified the need for matched blood donors for SCD patients and utilized
images of African-Americans. Few websites explained the role of RBC antigens in identifying matched
donors. Several websites lacked a specific call to action for African-Americans to donate blood. Few blood
centers addressed the difference between sickle cell disease and trait, and very few informed sickle cell trait
patients of their eligibility.

Scientific Focus Area: Health Disparities

This page was last updated on Monday, September 25, 2023