(P-BC-3) Impact of Higher Value Electronic Gift Card Rewards on Platelet Apheresis Donor Behavior, Product and Donor Safety

U.S. blood providers have increasingly utilized noncash and low-value (LV) donor rewards to influence donation behavior. Limited published research exists on the impact of higher value (HV) rewards on blood product and donor safety.

Study

Design/Methods:

In this retrospective longitudinal study, two platelet apheresis donor cohorts were compared across consecutive 52-week periods. Period 1 (April 12, 2021 – April 10, 2022) comprised donors who received traditional lower-value (LV) noncash rewards, including $10-$20 electronic gift cards upon first-time registration and subsequent registrations. Period 2 (April 11, 2022 - April 9, 2023) consisted of donors offered higher-value (HV) noncash rewards, including $50 electronic gift cards for first or second-time registrations and $25 electronic gift cards for subsequent registrations. Data on donor reactions, donor infectious disease testing, and first-time apheresis platelet donor status (FTAD) were collected using the blood establishment system. Changes in FTAD registration behavior, positive confirmatory infectious disease markers (IDM), and donor reactions from LV and HV donor cohorts were assessed using Chi Square, p< 0.05 is statistically significant.

Results/Findings:

Period 1 contained 24,519 registrations from 3,809 donors, 21% (818/3809) were FTAD. Period 2 contained 25,748 registrations from 4,519 donors, 37% (1,685/4,159) were FTAD. 1 of 3,809 (< .001%) LV donors had positive confirmatory IDM as compared to 1 of 4,159 (< .001%) HV donors. Each data set contained only one positive result, both repeat donors, which rendered this independent variable insignificant (p-value >.05). HV donors showed a slight increase in reaction rates (1.47%), composed primarily of phlebotomy incidents (1.45%), and a slight increase (0.02%) in vasovagal reactions. The Pearson correlation analysis yielded low to moderate correlation coefficients (ranging from –0.459 to 0.353) for the specified variables, a finding further substantiated by their associated p-values.

Conclusions:

This preliminary study highlighted that implementing high value rewards with platelet donors led to a significant effect in first-time donation behavior, while not impacting blood product safety or donor safety. HV donors showed a slight increase in phlebotomy incidents, which may warrant further study.