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Understanding Low Female Blood Donation Rates in the Eastern Mediterranean
Maha Badawi/LinkedIn
Sep 20, 2025, 14:49

Understanding Low Female Blood Donation Rates in the Eastern Mediterranean

Maha Badawi, Chairperson of the Hematology Department and Director of Blood Transfusion Services at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, shared on LinkedIn:

“Many blood banks in the Eastern Mediterranean region struggle with low numbers of women who successfully donate.

The issue is complex…are women afraid? Are they not interested? Are they anemic? Are they aware of the need? Are they looking for a specific donation setting?

We tried to look at this issue through the lens of Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, as prerequisites of Behavior. In this study, we focused only on the capability aspect, by following women who had the motivation and opportunity to present to the blood bank, and we studied whether they were accepted or not. If not accepted, we collected the reasons why. We then compared the results with men.

The data is simple, but it was never published before because of reasons we describe in the manuscript, related to differences in work-as-done vs work-as-prescribed per policies.

We already know that around 30% of women in our community have anemia, so the results were not surprising. Women were 12 times more likely to be deferred than men, mostly because of anemia (probably iron deficiency anemia).

We need further studies to understand the whole picture of low female donors, and even more work to address the issue of anemia and iron deficiency among women.

Grateful to the outstanding research team for allowing us to conduct this study and document these findings.”

Title: Exploring women’s capability to donate blood in a Saudi blood bank: A COM-B model study

Authors: Badawi, Maha A.; Mansory, Eman M.; Al-malki, Ahmed; Abbas, Sarah Adnan; Mutmi, Hassan; Gholam, Kholoud; Hindawi, Salwa

Blood

Read the full article here.

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Abbas Ahmed Al-malki anemia Badawi Blood Blood bank Blood donation Blood Transfusion Donation Eman M. Gholam Hassan Health Hematology Hemostasis Today Hindawi Iron-Deficiency Kholoud Maha A. Maha Badawi Mansory Medicine Mutmi Salwa Sarah Adnan Transfusion Medicine
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