Blood donors' attitudes towards voluntary non‐remunerated donation in Trinidad and Tobago

SUMMARY Objectives To assess the attitude towards voluntary non‐remunerated blood donation among blood donors in Trinidad and Tobago (TRT). Background Blood donors in TRT are either family replacement (F/R, 87%) or remunerated (13%). There is chronic blood shortage and high seroreactivity for transfusion‐transmissible infections (TTI) in donors. Converting existing to voluntary non‐remunerated donors (VNRD) reduces the need to recruit news donors in achieving 100% VNRD. Methods A questionnaire‐based, cross‐sectional survey was conducted at two blood collection centres at an interval of 8 years. Donors were surveyed for sociodemographic characteristics, awareness of the blood shortage, previous donation behaviour, donor‐beneficiary linkage if F/R, willingness to become VNRD and choice of motivators for converting to VNRD. Results A total of 400 and 595 donors respectively participated in Surveys 1 and 2, of whom 92·8 and 86·3% were F/R (P