Awareness, Motivation, and Fear towards Canine Blood Donation—A Survey of Dog Owners in Lithuania

The recruitment of canine blood donors remains a challenge, especially in countries where blood donation and veterinary medicine are still emerging medical fields. There are few previous studies that have discussed canine blood donation strategies, and the subject of fear and its influencing factors...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Brigita Zakarevičiūtė, Dalia Juodžentė, Birutė Karvelienė, Vita Riškevičienė
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: MDPI AG 2021
Materias:
dog
pet
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/cc7a6a07c0e0474d8b6a732cfe336ad4
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:The recruitment of canine blood donors remains a challenge, especially in countries where blood donation and veterinary medicine are still emerging medical fields. There are few previous studies that have discussed canine blood donation strategies, and the subject of fear and its influencing factors have not been investigated. The main purpose of our study was to investigate dog owners’ awareness, motivation, and fear regarding canine blood donation in order to improve donor recruitment strategies. We created a six-page questionnaire and submitted it to dog owners (<i>n</i> = 207) in person. Two-thirds of the respondents (65.7%) were not aware that canine blood donation exists in Lithuania. We did not find any factors that would significantly affect the motivation of respondents toward donation. We found an association between the fear of the owner and the health status of the owned dog (<i>p</i> = 0.008), as well as if their animal had needed urgent care in the past (<i>p</i> = 0.031). The fact that some participants were blood donors themselves did not affect their motivation, but they were 19.76% less afraid of canine blood donation (<i>p</i> = 0.001), as were respondents who were aware of canine blood donation (<i>p</i> = 0.004). In conclusion, the recruitment strategy should focus on the management of fear toward canine blood donation and the education of clients, and donor welfare must remain a priority.