2023-07-13 17:31:21
by Maurizio Tucci
The results from the observatory AVIS
– Adolescence laboratory on a sample of students between 13 and 19 years old. In addition to «belenophobia», the young fear even the sight of blood. And 10% still say they are not interested
According to the data National Blood Center, in 2022 blood donors in Italy – were 1,660,227, up by 0.4% compared to the previous year. With 2,497,773 units of red blood cells collected, Italy therefore confirms itself as self-sufficient in blood collection, while we are still a long way from achieving self-sufficiency in plasma collection (the liquid part of blood), which is essential for the production of life-saving drugs such as albumin and immunoglobulins, for which we have to import about 25% of the stocks of this type of medicine from abroad.
The donor population ages
If the general picture is positive overall (the understandable decline recorded during the Covid years is also recovering), analyzing the data in depth what is worrying is the progressive aging of the donor population, which does not seem to correspond to an adequate generational turnover. Overall, donors between 18 and 45 years of age recorded a drop of 2% in one year and the group between 18 and 45 years went from 1,089,510 donors in 2012 (63% of the total) to 866,112 in 2021 (52% of the total); always in this age group, in the last 10 years new donors have decreased by 24%.
“Propensity” of young people in decline
But there’s more: what appears to be declining is also the propensity of very young people to become blood donors at the permitted age (18 years). The figure emerges from the observatory that AVIS e Adolescent Lab have been going on for over ten years (on a nationally representative sample of students in the 13-19 age group) precisely with the aim of taking the pulse of the forthcoming donors. Until the pandemic, the percentage of those who said they intended to become a donor (certainly or probably) had remained stable and around 50% (with 10% certainly against it and 40% stating that they had not yet taken into consideration the What). Since Covid, things have changed.
In 2021 there was a first drop in donors in pectore of around 7% but, above all, the very recent data from the 2023 edition of the survey show a further significant drop, bringing potential donors to 38%. A drop determined in particular by a sharp decline in the older ones who in the immediate post-pandemic had all in all “held on”. And, if the percentage of those who say they “have not yet thought about it” remains overall similar to the past, the “certainly not” jump to 31.4%.
The reasons
What are the reasons? If a reasonable and physiological 10% oppose because they are “not interested in the thing”, 21% indicate fear of the needle (belenophobia) and the sight of blood as the reason for the “no”. With all the sympathy for an adolescence that appears increasingly fragile from all points of view (a test at school that went badly is enough to throw them into a panic), the “excuse” of fear of the needle is still perplexing. Even considering that we are dealing with a generation of adolescents who have never been so tattooed and “pierced” as the current one, who willingly submit – for looks – to the “torment” of the needle.
Loredana Petrone, psychologist and psychotherapist at the University of Chieti, explains: «Unfortunately young people (but not only young people) show less and less empathy towards others. Focused on themselves, they fail little and badly to identify themselves in the situation of another person and much less of the community. The model of society that we have created certainly does not help to generate feelings of generosity and solidarity, but a slice of responsibility also comes from having increasingly transferred relationships to the web, where “the other from oneself” is perceived for one’s own use and consumption”.
Geographical differences and awareness campaign
And speaking of empathy, perhaps it will be just a “heart in hand” cliché, but it is interesting to observe that, albeit in the generalized decline, girls and adolescents of the South (males and females) are clearly the most willing to donate of blood. To try to reverse this trend, AVIS has recently launched a new communication campaign entitled «Get involved, donate blood», as an invitation to overcome passive attitudes with a constructive and socially useful approach, which is aimed precisely at a very young target, between 18 and 25 years old.
And Giampietro Briola, national AVIS president, is optimistic: «We must be able to hook young people by providing them with a strong and convincing motivation as to why it is important to become blood donors and why it is worth overcoming the small fears they may have in facing for first time withdrawal. I’m sure that, if we know how to strike the right chords, we will have great and precious allies in young people».
July 13, 2023 (change July 13, 2023 | 5:30 pm)
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