Effect of Attitude towards SMS Technology and Its Applications on Blood Donation Behaviour

This paper assesses the effect of attitude towards SMS technology and SMS based reminders on blood donation behaviour through a survey using a self-administered questionnaire. Specifically, the study assesses the attitude towards SMS technology and content of SMS based reminders among blood donors of the Malawi Blood Transfusion Service. Furthermore, the paper assesses the relationship between attitude towards SMS technology and SMS based reminders on one hand and blood donation behaviour on the other. The paper has shown that blood donors at the Malawi Blood Transfusion Service have positive attitude towards the SMS technology and SMS message content on all dimensions. Although the results have shown that blood donors attitude towards SMS technology was positive irrespective demographic variations, the results have also shown that level of education of the donors moderates their attitude towards the content of SMS message with donors without formal education qualification exhibiting relatively negative attitude compared with those with formal qualification. However, the survey was limited to effects of overall attitude towards SMS technology on intention to donate blood. Since intention to donate blood is a socially accepted behaviour, the results may have been biased by respondents who may have given socially acceptable responses while their actual position may have been different. Furthermore, dimensions that significantly contribute to these relationships were not examined.