Multimedia Health Communication Laboratory, Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Università di Milano Bicocca, Monzo, Italy.
Blood Transfus. 2010 Oct;8(4):278-87. doi: 10.2450/2010.0156-09.
An overview of European blood donors shows that the distribution of men and women donors is similar in many countries, with Italy being an exception in that women account for only 30% of donors. Gender medicine is a key issue in this context, even though gender studies are very limited in the transfusion field, whether considered broadly or with specific regards to the selection, management and retention of donors. It, therefore, seemed important to compare the presence of women among blood donors in different European countries and examine the roles that gender is reported to play in the donation of blood in order to identify possible implications for communication with and management of the donor.
To determine the proportion of women among donors in European countries, data were collected from annual reports or documents available on the websites of national associations; furthermore, all papers related to giving blood published in the five main journals in the sector (Transfusion, Vox Sanguinis, Transfusion and Apheresis Science, Transfusion Medicine, Blood Transfusion) were considered; about 80 publications were selected and the gender variable was examined.
The published studies showed that gender plays key roles in the motivation to give blood (women being more altruistic, men being more individualistic) and in adverse reactions, which was a particularly critical problem leading to fewer women become regular donors. A few aspects specific to the management of donors in Italy also emerged.
Gender seems to play an important role in the aspects studied and does, therefore, merit further consideration in relation to strategies to recruit donors and the management of critical events during donation.
欧洲献血者概况显示，许多国家的男女献血者分布相似，意大利是个例外，女性仅占献血者的 30%。性别医学是这方面的一个关键问题，尽管在输血领域，性别研究非常有限，无论是广义上还是具体到献血者的选择、管理和保留，都是如此。因此，比较不同欧洲国家女性在献血者中的存在，并研究性别在献血中的作用，以确定对与献血者沟通和管理的可能影响，似乎很重要。
为了确定欧洲国家献血者中女性的比例，从各国协会网站上提供的年度报告或文件中收集数据；此外，还考虑了该领域五个主要期刊（《输血》、《血液学》、《输血与血浆分离科学》、《输血医学》、《输血》）上发表的所有与献血相关的论文；选择了约 80 篇出版物，并检查了性别变量。
已发表的研究表明，性别在献血动机（女性更利他，男性更个人主义）和不良反应中起着关键作用，不良反应是导致女性成为常规献血者人数减少的一个特别关键问题。还出现了一些与意大利献血者管理特定方面有关的问题。
性别似乎在研究的各个方面都起着重要作用，因此，在招募献血者的策略和献血过程中的关键事件管理方面，值得进一步考虑。
