Perceptions in Transfusion Medicine: A Pilot Field Study on Risk and Ethics for Blood and Blood Substitutes

Figures & data

Table 1. Rating perceptions for blood products

	Risk	Effectiveness	Ethicality
Having a transfusion of donated blood	3.2 ± 1.2^1	5.9 ± 1.1^1	6.0 ± 1.3^1
Having a transfusion of artificial blood made from chemicals	3.9 ± 1.5^2	5.1 ± 1.2^2	5.3 ± 1.7^2
Having a transfusion of artificial blood grown from bacteria	4.0 ± 1.3^2	5.0 ± 1.3^2	5.2 ± 1.6^3
Having a transfusion of artificial blood based on cow blood	4.7 ± 1.4^3	4.8 ± 1.2^2	4.8 ± 1.8^4

Values are mean ± s.d. throughout; superscript notations indicate significant differences (e.g., 1 = significantly different to 2, etc.).

Table 2. Correlations between perceived risk, effectiveness and ethicality

	Risk and effectiveness	Risk and ethicality	Effectiveness and ethicality
Having a transfusion of donated blood	−0.195*	−0.100	0.159
Having a transfusion of artificial blood made from chemicals	−0.331**	−0.206*	0.229**
Having a transfusion of artificial blood grown from bacteria	−0.272**	−0.240**	0.021
Having a transfusion of artificial blood based on cow blood	−0.304**	−0.239*	0.238**

n = 122–144; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 (two-tailed tests).