Recruiting ethnic minorities of African descent as blood donors through a systematic intervention development

Background and objectives Blood donors of African descent are essential for the availability of specific antigen‐negative blood, yet past recruitment strategies yielded limited successes. The aim was to systematically develop an intervention to recruit African blood donors in the Netherlands, following the Intervention Mapping (IM) protocol. Materials and methods Based on the previous needs‐assessment (Step 1), change objectives (Step 2) and practical strategies (Step 3) were developed, and further determined through eight interviews and two focus groups with blood bank staff and experts. The strategies were then translated into a magazine article pilot‐experiment ( n = 16) as part of the programme production (Step 4). The magazine appraisal and intention‐change were studied of the target group and compared with a previously published magazine article and a control group in an online survey. Results Important factors in the needs‐assessment related to donation awareness and knowledge and were also rated by staff and experts as most relevant and feasible determinants. The finalized objectives and strategies consisted of awareness raising and understanding how and where to donate blood. In the magazine pilot, the look and feel of the previously published article was higher valued, but the newly developed article’s content was higher rated. Reading the magazine articles increased donation intention as compared to the pre‐test and reference, but the increase did not differ between the articles. Conclusion IM helped to define intervention objectives and strategies and gave valuable insights in how to implement (step 5) and evaluate (step 6) a donor recruitment intervention.