To

To: Dr. Spencer Baker
sbaker@odu.edu;

From: Thomas Meyer
tmeyer@ph.vccs.edu
(276) 656-0283
Patrick Henry Community College

Subject: Statistics - w/ Dr.Spencer Baker - Homework Assignment #1, Ch 1 - Problem 16, page25.

filename: StatHW1Ch1Prob16page25TomMeyer.doc

Facts:

Blood supply depends upon donations, and not all that much is known about why people donate blood.
Men give more than women, particularly middle-aged men. Personality factors may be related to first donators and to repeat donators. Information or the lack of it may be related to donations. Certain fears may be related to willingness to donate.

What variables would you want to measure?

Answer:
1. Blood supply donations
2. Recruitment strategies
3. Donators - 1st time
4. Donators - repeaters
5. Men, Women, by age decile
5A <10 years of age
5B. >10, <20
5C. >20, <30
5D. >30, <40
5E. >40, <50
5F. >50, <60
5G. >60, <70
5h. >70
6. Blood supply failures to donate (rejections for "bad blood")
6a Personality factors
6A1. Empathy
6A2. Perspective-taking
6A3. Empathic concern
6A4. Altruism
6A5. Personal distress
6b. Fears
6B1. Needles
6B2. Blood
7. Recruitment strategies
7a. Blood supply donators
7A1. donators - first time (same as 3 above)
7A2. donators - repeat (same as 4 above)
8. Information
8A. need
8B. process
8C. risk factors
8D. other
9. Information from donators
9A. reactions before donating
9B. reactions after donating
9C. Intent to donate
9D. Deferrals (barred from donating)

How would you measure them?

Answer:

1. Blood supply donations - Count pints added (measure flow) or (measure change in stock of stored blood resulting from usage, replacement, and discards)
2. Recruitment strategies (Same as 7)
3. Types of Donators - Self identify on form
4. Categories of information recorded about donors - have respondents check off lists of possible responses on forms prepared in advance.
4A. reactions before donating - open ended form - check the possible answers that apply to you
4B . reactions after donating - open ended form - check the possible answers that apply to you
4C. Intent to donate - open ended form - check the possible answers that apply to you
4D. Deferrals (barred from donating) - check the possible answers that apply to you
5. Men, Women, by age decile
5A <10 years of age - Self report on form before donating
5B. >10, <20
5C. >20, <30
5D. >30, <40
5E. >40, <50
5F. >50, <60
5G. >60, <70
5h. >70
6. Blood supply failures to donate - Count rejections for "bad blood"
6a Personality factors - categorize as positives (6a1 through 6a5); categorize as negatives (6B1 and 6B2)
6A1. Empathy - use developed tests on hand
6A2. Perspective-taking - use developed tests on hand
6A3. Empathic concern - use developed tests on hand
6A4. Altruism - use developed tests on hand
6A5. Personal distress - use developed tests on hand
6b. Fears
6B1. Needles - use developed tests on hand
6B2. Blood - use developed tests on hand
7. Recruitment strategies (based on blood supply donators of two types and information suitable to their needs)
7a. Blood supply donators
7A1. donators - first time (same as 3 above)
7A2. donators - repeat (same as 4 above)
8. Information - ask participants to complete a form in which the place a check mark next to the kind of information they would like to have.
8A. need for blood donations
8B. process of donating
8C. risk factors in donating
8D. other

What level of scale does each variable represent?

	Variable	Nominal Scale	Ordinal Scale	Interval Scale	Ratio scale
1.	Pints of blood				X
2.	Recruiting strategies	X
3.	Types of donators (see item 7)	X
3a	Donators	X
3b	Donators - 1st time				X
3c	Donators - prior				X
3d	Donators - rejected for "bad blood" or other reasons (same as 9D)				X
4.	Information categories received from donors	X
4a 4b 4c 4d	Reactions before, after, intent to donate deferred	X X X X
5.	Gender		X
5A-H	Age by decile	X
6.	Categories of personality factors	X
6a 6b 6c 6d 6e	Empathy Perspective-taking Empathic concern Altruism Personal distress			X X X X X
7.	Fear categories	X
7a	fear of needles		X
7b	fear of blood		X
8.	Information categories needed by donors	X
8a	Need	X
8b	Process	X
8c	Risk factors	X
8d	Other	X

What questions would you have about the data? How would you answer them?

Who donates?
Do men give more than women? Answer: Assume they are equal and disprove it by comparing the means in each gender.
Do particular age brackets give more than other age brackets? Answer: Compare point donated with age deciles.

How can people be recruited to donate blood? Randomly assign participants to groups undergoing different recruiting strategies. Then count the respondents who donate blood after receiving the recruitment strategy.

Do personality variable influence donations? Answer: Count the responses on questionnaires of blood donors; frequency of response may be associated or correlated with willingness to donate blood.

What kinds of information do blood donors need? Answer: Count the responses on questionnaires of blood donors.

Tom Meyer

Thomas Meyer