A Donor Information Needs Driven Approach to Address Kenyas Declining Blood Donations

The gap between demand and supply of blood is continuously widening as the population increases. This is of great concern in Kenya where blood donation figures are below the World Health Organizations recommendations. A random cross-sectional survey involving 224 respondents using questionnaires, focus group discussions, immersion sessions, empathy and observations was undertaken in and around Nairobi. The objective of this study was to elicit donor information needs to enable the improvement of donor recruitment and retention strategies through the use of ICT based tools.63.8 % of respondents had never donated blood and only 4.9 % were regular donors. Only 19 of the 81 donors had been contacted by KNBTS.71.4 % of all respondents indicated that receiving SMS and emails with information on blood donation dates and venues would be quite useful, while 79 % would welcome educative information on blood donation.70.1 % of respondents suggested that increased awareness on donation dates and venues and increased donor education would improve donor participation. There is very little use of ICTs to help improve donor participation. This study recommends the use of ICT technologies such as SMS, Email and Social Media for donor education in order to increase donor awareness.