Young people's attitudes towards their health and blood donation

Abstract

The article presents the results of theoretical analysis of social and psychological problems of the donation, as well as researches of correlations between youth attitude towards their health and blood donation. The most active and safe donors are typically young volunteers with altruistic attitudes. Therefore, along with the study of altruism as the motive of the donation, an important aspect of the problem is the attitude of young people towards their health. 115 people were involved in an empirical study (39 men and 76 women) aged between 20 and 33 years, with and without experience of blood donation. We analyzed the young people's ideas about the personal qualities of the donor and donation motives. It has been shown that the more young people tend to lead a healthy lifestyle, the more positive their ideas are about the motives and personal qualities of the donor. There is a positive relationship between the youth attitude towards blood donation and its own involvement in donor movement. The more young people are involved in the donation practice, the more positive their evaluation of the motivations and personality traits of donors is. Also a positive relationship between the involvement of young people in the practice of donation and commitment to a healthy lifestyle was found. The study results suggest that the lack of awareness in donation issues is a significant obstacle for the expansion of youth participation in the donor movement.