title: New donors, loyal donors, and regular donors: Which motivations sustain blood donation?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The present contribution aims to investigate the motivations underlying blood donation and to probe how these differ on the basis of number of donations and donors' gender.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 237 Italian donors (64.6% male) were administered a self-report questionnaire containing socio-demographic variables and Omoto and Snyder's Motivations for Volunteerism Scale adapted to blood donation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results reveal: (a) significant differences between new donors (1-4 donations) and loyal donors (5-15 donations) as well as between new donors and regular donors (more than 16 donations) emerge with respect to social motivations and ego-protection, which increase proportionately to number of donations; (b) gender differences characterize all the motivations except those related to values; (c) value motivations do not vary either with respect to number of donations or to gender.
authors: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, Italy. Electronic address: paolo.guiddi@unicatt.it.
authors: Paolo
authors: P
authors: Guiddi
authors: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, Italy.
authors: Sara
authors: S
authors: Alfieri
authors: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, Italy.
authors: Elena
authors: E
authors: Marta
authors: AVIS, National Blood Donors Association, Milan, Italy.
authors: Vincenzo
authors: V
authors: Saturni
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001782:Blood Donors / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D012737:Sex Factors; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement; D014838:Volunteers; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Blood donation; Loyal donors; Motivations; New donors; Volunteer function inventory