title: Blood donors and factors impacting the blood donation decision: motives for donating blood in Turkish sample.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Donations in Turkey are insufficient to cover the high transfusion needs arising from large numbers of thalassemia and sickle cell anemia patients and increasing demands for blood due to advanced surgery and cancer treatment. The most acceptable means to get blood is voluntary blood donation and the blood donor system in Turkey mostly depends on a combination of voluntary and involuntary donors. The main aim of this study is to explore the motivations of Turkish voluntary blood donors toward blood donation and to determine predictors of blood donation motivation.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional sample survey of active blood donors in Ankara, Turkey was conducted. The sample consisted of 189 male volunteer blood donor adults. Donors filled in a self-administered questionnaire including the measures of demographic information, empathetic concern, altruism, social responsibility and blood donation motivation questionnaire during donation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Factor analysis of Blood Donation Motivation Measure with varimax rotation revealed a three-factor solution named as "values and moral duty", "positive feelings and esteem" and "self-benefit and external reasons". The results with regression analyses showed that only social responsibility had an significant effect independent of age, income, and education on blood donation motivation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These result reflects that blood donation motivation not only linked to a high degree of altruistic reasons, but also to a combination of some self-regarding motives. Additionally, feelings of empathy or altruism may be less strong at the time the decision to help, other factors may have a larger influence on helping decisions.
authors.affiliation: Ufuk University Faculty of Art and Science and Literature, Department of Psychology, Turkey.
authors.forename: Eda
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Karacan
authors.forename: Guldane
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cengiz Seval
authors.forename: Zeynep
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Aktan
authors.forename: Meltem
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ayli
authors.forename: Refia
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Palabiyikoglu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000533:Altruism; D001782:Blood Donors / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003657:Decision Making; D004645:Empathy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D012941:Social Responsibility; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Altruism; Blood donation; Empathy; Motivation to blood donation; Social responsibility