A report in the BioMed Central's open access International Journal of Health Geographics says, younger adults are better blood donors. The study conducted in Canada found interesting facts about donating blood and saving lives.
'Like other countries, Canada's population is aging, and the implications of this demographic change need to be better understood from the perspective of blood supply' says Antonio Páez who carried out the research with a team from McMaster University, Canada.
Though this is a good news, Canada is worrying about the declining proportion of youth in total population. The study sponsored by Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canada Blood Services, and Environics Analytics, says the need of blood to save lives is high and those willing to give blood constitute only 4% of eligible donors. Educated people are majority in this small group of willing donors. Dwellers of big cities are poor donors.
According to Páez, "The fact that those who possessed a higher level of education were more likely to donate lends weight to the assertion that, with 25% of Canadians thinking there are some risks in donating blood, educating the public would help expand the donor database".
"Blood products are an essential component of modern medicine and necessary to support many life-saving and life-prolonging procedures," states Páez, who concludes "To achieve the target levels of donations, there need to be targeted campaigns designed to encourage a greater number of Canadians to consider blood donation".
|
