Search Results (5)

Blood donation is essential in health-care systems worldwide, dealing with the demand for transfusions, and for the treatment of a variety of medical conditions. A major obstacle is raising the rate of blood donations by recruiting and retaining donors in an efficient manner. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of blood donation, utilizing an enhanced framework based on the theory of planned behavior with an emphasis on emotional arousal (positive and negative), attitudes towards advertisements, and blood donation anxiety, revealing critical psychological and communicative determinants of blood donation intention. To achieve this, a quantitative non-experimental correlational technique was employed to collect data from 414 individuals using an online questionnaire circulated across Greek society. The data were analyzed using structural equation modelling, with a focus on the direct impacts on donation intentions and the role of emotional arousal as a mediator. The findings indicate that attitudes and anxiety have strong direct impacts on the behavioral intention to donate, underlining the important barriers generated by donation anxieties as well as the efficacy of positive attitudes and successful advertising. Furthermore, the study demonstrates emotional arousal as a partial mediator, implying that both cognitive assessments and emotional responses play a role in influencing donation intentions. This study takes on a new approach to give emphasis and provide evidence of the mediating effect of emotional arousal on donation intention, utilizing structural equation modeling. Despite the critical role of marketing as a primary source of blood donors, the implementation of emotional marketing techniques has been one aspect less addressed throughout marketing professionals and communication efforts. Our results demonstrate the significance of emotional arousal on blood donation intentions, thus suggesting a more emotionally resonant approach of attracting potential donors. Full article

(1) Background: The study was aimed at a better understanding of the factors determining making a decision to become a potential bone marrow donor, in a Polish research sample; (2) Methods: The data was collected using a self-report questionnaire among persons who voluntarily participated in the study concerning donation, conducted on a sample of the Polish population via Internet. The study included 533 respondents (345 females and 188 males), aged 18–49. Relationships between the decision about registration as potential bone marrow donor and psycho-socio-demographic factors were estimated using the machine learning methods (binary logistic regression and classification & regression tree); (3) Results. The applied methods coherently emphasized the crucial role of personal experiences in making the decision about willingness for potential donation, f.e. familiarity with the potential donor. They also indicated religious issues and negative health state assessment as main decision-making destimulators; (4) Conclusions. The results of the study may contribute to an increase in the effectiveness of recruitment actions by more precise personalization of popularizing-recruitment actions addressed to the potential donors. It was found that selected machine learning methods are interesting set of analyses, increasing the prognostic accuracy and quality of the proposed model. Full article

The cyber world affects many aspects of personal and communal life in our modern world. One significant form of this influence is the growing digitisation of religious understanding. This article will focus on one facet of this virtual religious discussion, namely the religious rulings of organ donation and transplantation in Islam. This study will emphasise that discussion of the credibility of online fatwas is a neglected area that deserves significant scholarly attention. It will examine the diversity and complexity of 50 online fatwas on organ donation and transplantation selected from various fatwa organisations, government bodies, and councils across 16 countries, which differ linguistically, ethnically, socio-culturally, and by religious orientation. This article has three main arguments. First, it argues that state appointed and controlled religious authorities who work under close scrutiny of the state lack credibility in their fatwas. This has especially been the case in the post-colonial period where authoritarian states have deprived many Muslim scholars of their scholarly freedom to produce independent fatwas. Secondly, the paper asserts that an absence of field experts in the fatwa-making process in such areas as medicine, psychology, law, and public policy has weakened the credibility of online fatwas. Finally, the online fatwas evidenced in this study shows little, if any, consideration of opposing views on organ donation and transplantation, further damaging the reliability of the rulings produced. Finally, the online fatwas evidenced in this study shows little, if any, consideration of opposing views on organ donation and transplantation, further damaging the reliability of the rulings produced. Full article

In light of a global organ shortage, living donor transplantation has become increasingly relevant as an alternative to deceased donor transplantation. While current research has revolved around the medical aspects of transplantation, there remains a paucity of literature regarding the quality of life (QOL) of living donors. Hence, this review aims to provide a comprehensive outline of the current landscape of living liver and kidney transplantation, with a focus on the mental health and wellbeing of donors. As highlighted in previous studies, organ donation has a significant impact on both physical and mental aspects of donor wellbeing, with marked deteriorations occurring in the short term. Furthermore, other qualitative aspects such as financial burden contribute greatly to donor distress, reflecting a need for improved donor care. To address these pertinent issues, recommendations for a successful transplant program are detailed in this review, which encompasses psychological and social aspects of donor care throughout the donation process. Further research can be done on the impact of recipient deaths on donor QOL and appropriate interventions. Overall, given the selfless sacrifices of living donors, the care of their mental wellbeing is essential. Therefore, greater emphasis should be placed on the provision of adequate psychosocial support for them. Full article

Social enterprises, organizations that pursue social purposes while generating profits, have garnered attention recently as potential key players for a sustainable economy. However, research on the perception of social enterprises by lay people has been ignored even though positive reception of social enterprises is an important condition for their sustainability. In the present study, we compared for-profit enterprise employees (n = 200) and social enterprise employees (n = 162) and examined their differences in attitude toward the profit-making aspects of social enterprises as well as the employees working for social enterprises. The results showed that for-profit enterprises overestimated that social enterprise employees were extrinsically motivated and underestimated their prosocial intentions. In addition, for-profit enterprise employees were less favorable toward the profit-making aspects of social enterprises, including payment of high salaries for the social enterprise employees and using donations to run social enterprises. Interestingly, the difference between for-profit and social enterprise employees in their attitude toward the profit-making aspects of social enterprises was explained by lay theories of altruism called “pure altruism.” The present research makes important contributions by identifying the psychological mechanisms that underlie individuals’ perceptions and attitude toward social enterprises. Full article