Blaine Ditto

Improving blood donor recruitment and retention: integrating theoretical advances from social and behavioral science research agendas

BACKGROUND: Increasing blood donor recruitment and retention is of key importance to transfusion services. Research within the social and behavioral science traditions has adopted separate but complementary approaches to addressing these issues. This article aims to review both of these types of literature, examine theoretical developments, identify commonalities, and offer a means to integrate these within a single intervention approach.

Reducing reactions to blood donation with applied muscle tension: a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND:  Unpleasant blood donation‐related symptoms may discourage otherwise healthy, altruistic individuals from becoming repeat donors. This study examined a behavioral technique called applied muscle tension (AMT) that might reduce reactions.

On-site training in applied muscle tension to reduce vasovagal reactions to blood donation.

Vasovagal reactions significantly complicate the blood collection process and, more importantly, discourage people who might otherwise donate blood many times from returning. Applied muscle tension is a simple behavioral technique that may reduce vasovagal reactions by maintaining blood pressure. It has been successfully used to treat patients with blood and injury phobias, but has not been applied in the more general, time-limited context of blood collection clinics. Thirty-seven inexperienced blood donors (maximum number of prior donations = 2) attending mobile blood collection clinics were asked to practice applied tension after watching a 2-min instructional video presented on a notebook computer. They were compared with 94 untreated donors with similar donation experience and 47 more experienced blood donors. Treatment reduced the number of symptoms reported on a postdonation questionnaire. It also significantly reduced the amount of medical treatment required (chair reclining) among those who practiced applied tension for the entire period they were in the donation chair.

Pain Sensitivity in Offspring of Hypertensives at Rest and During Baroreflex Stimulation

Healthy males with a parental history of hypertension (PH+) showed reduced pain sensitivity to a constrictive thigh-cuff pressure stimulus as compared to individuals without a parental history of hypertension. The protocol included eight trials in which a thigh-cuff was inflated until the subject reported the stimulus to be “painful.” The PH+ group exhibited significantly lower pain sensitivity as indicated by (1) higher levels of constrictive pressure when pain was first reported and (2) lower subjective pain ratings at maximum constrictive pressure. To assess the role of baroreflex stimulation on pain sensitivity in these groups, four trials were administered concurrently with external carotid pressure stimulation. There were no significant differences in pain sensitivity in each group as a function of baroreflex stimulation. The results suggest that the hypoalgesia observed in hypertensives may predate the development of sustained elevations in blood pressure.

Dismantling applied tension: mechanisms of a treatment to reduce blood donation–related symptoms

BACKGROUND: Blood donation–related symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, and fainting are unpleasant for the donor and a significant disincentive for repeat donation. The muscle tensing technique of applied tension (AT) reduced symptoms in several studies.

Vasovagal symptoms mediate the relationship between predonation anxiety and subsequent blood donation in female volunteers

BACKGROUND:  Although not universal, a certain amount of predonation anxiety is common and not surprising among inexperienced blood donors. Variations in predonation anxiety, however, may influence the donor’s experience in several respects and might be related to the likelihood of subsequent donation even among those who do not report particularly high levels of anxiety.

Predonation hydration and applied muscle tension combine to reduce presyncopal reactions to blood donation

BACKGROUND: A randomized controlled trial was conducted to test the effects of hydration and applied muscle tensing on presyncopal reactions to blood donation. Both interventions are designed to prevent the decreases in blood pressure that can contribute to such reactions, but due to the distinct physiologic mechanisms underlying their pressor responses it was hypothesized that a combined intervention would yield the greatest benefit.

Psychometric properties of the Blood Donation Reactions Inventory: a subjective measure of presyncopal reactions to blood donation

BACKGROUND: Presyncopal reactions are among the most common systemic reactions experienced by blood donors, occur most frequently in novice donors, and can serve as a deterrent to future donation regardless of donation experience. This report describes the validation of a presyncopal reactions scale that can be used to standardize assessment of the donors subjective experience.

Risk for hypertension and diminished pain sensitivity in women: autonomic and daily correlates

Research suggests an association between risk for hypertension and decreased pain sensitivity. However, few studies have utilized non-behavioral indices of pain to corroborate subjective reports or sought to generalize these findings to women. Furthermore, it has not been established whether results obtained using well-controlled laboratory pain stimuli extend to naturalistic pain. In Study 1, 80 young adult women with (N = 40) and without (N = 40) a parental history of hypertension and with either normatively low or high resting systolic blood pressure (SBP) were exposed to two experimental pain stimuli, finger pressure and the cold pressor test. In addition to behavioral pain measures, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reactions to pain were also assessed. Women with a parental history of hypertension and/or normatively high resting SBP experienced significantly less pain, as assessed by both behavioral and RSA measures. In Study 2, 37 of the participants from Study 1 monitored their behaviors, affect, and physical symptoms, three times a day for 32 days. Laboratory pain sensitivity was significantly correlated with daily reports of pain but not gastrointestinal symptoms. The present results confirm an association between risk for hypertension and hypoalgesia in women and suggest generalizability of this relationship to everyday life.

Attitudes and Attributions Related to Psychological Symptomatology in Indian Immigrant Women

This study explored the patterns of attitudes and attributions associated with relatively high and low distress among a sample of (N = 104) immigrant women from India living in Montreal. Results showed the high distress group to be less satisfied with their roles in the home and in the job market, to be more in favor of modem sex roles, to want less to pass on traditional sex roles to their children, to attribute success and failure more to their own personal characteristics and less to destiny, and to perceive more racial discrimination in society. The findings underline the value of differentiating between aspects of immigration and incorporating social psychological variables in studies of possible links between immigration and distress.