BloodHero: The Power of Gamification in Social Habit

Daniela Domingos, Luis Felipe Lima,Thiago Messias, José Feijó, Anthony Diniz and Heliana Soares

## Abstract

The lack of blood in hemocenters is an intermittent problem in the Brazilian health system; due to the difficulty of attracting blood donors, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), each country must maintain 3–5% of its population as regular blood donors. However, the number of regular donors in Brazil, in recent years, has not reached 3% of the population. In order to attract periodic volunteer blood donors, the objective of this study was to develop a mobile application, called BloodHero, to work as a social network, with a game methodology, known as gamification, to encourage blood donation. Initiatives and interactions favorable to blood donation, within the application, will generate points that will be used for in-game competitiveness. Another contribution given to those that use this software is the interaction between users who can donate blood and patient users, where these second ones can share their stories or use this software as a tool to find someone compatible with their blood type for donation.

Keywords: social habits, blood donation, app, social network, gamification

### 1. Introduction

Blood transfusion is one of the fundamental pillars for large elective surgeries, for urgent care, and for the treatment of oncological or chronic diseases. In Brazil, in 2014, according to the Health Portal of the Unified Health System, only a number of elective surgeries increased by 11.7%, in relation to the previous 2 years, representing about 2.4 million procedures performed with the need for blood transfusion [1].

Blood is an important tissue for the survival of other tissues and, so far, cannot be replaced by any other liquid or be artificially produced [2], what makes blood donation a fundamental practice for the performance of transfusions.

However, the collection of blood bags in Brazil is insufficient, caused by the lack of voluntary donors. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), for a population to maintain stocks of blood bags, at a satisfactory level, 3–5% of the population has to donor, at least once a year, but Brazil's annual average is 1.8% [3]. Translating in numbers, Brazil, with its population of about 210 million people, would need 6.3 million people to donate blood, at least once a year, but the average donation recorded, in previous years, was about 3.7 million.

The difficulties in attracting new blood donors are evidenced mainly by five reasons that repel the individual from the cause [4]:

• Misinformation—People do not understand the process, what is its purpose, and its importance.

2. Theoretical aspects

BloodHero: The Power of Gamification in Social Habit DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84140

tissue, found in long bones [10].

used in a transfusion [12–15].

Table 1.

195

Blood characteristics and compatibility.

Blood is responsible for the entire distribution of molecules to tissues. Its functions include gas exchange through the red blood cells, defense against foreign bodies by leukocytes, transport of nutrients and hormones by plasma, and coagulation through platelets. It is produced by the red bone marrow or hemocytopoietic

The blood type is conditioned by multiple alleles, the main ones being the ABO system and the Rh factor (+ and ). It causes the possibility of existing eight main possibilities: A+, A, B+, B, O+, O, AB+, and AB. Each one of these types is characterized by the presence of agglutinogens (A, B, and Rh) and agglutinins (anti-A, anti-B, and anti-Rh). They are directly linked to the compatibility used

Blood donation is the process of collecting blood from a volunteer to, after a series of treatments and examinations, be stored in a blood bank and, when needed,

According to the WHO, blood donation should be voluntary and unpaid, to avoid risk [3]. Before the donation, the candidate undergoes two previous stages, called screening: an interview/questionnaire, where questions are asked to check blood-related diseases, in order to improve the safety of the donor and patient, and a clinical examination, aiming at ascertaining the health conditions of the donor and if there is something that will harm him at the time of donation [2]. Any identified

Being fit, the donor passes to the collection stage, where 400–450 ml of the blood tissue is withdrawn. The average collection time is 10 minutes, and reactions rarely occur. The blood volume of an adult is 62.4 ml per kg, that is, a normal adult

Replacement of the blood volume by the organism occurs within 24 hours, for the blood plasma, and 4 weeks, for the red blood cells; however, the recovery of iron can take 8 weeks for the man and 12 weeks for the woman. Because of this, the maximum frequency of donation of blood for men is four times a year, with a minimum interval of 2 months between donations. For women, the maximum frequency is three times a year, with a 3-month interval between donations. Donors

In Brazil, Ministerial Order No. 158, of February 4, 2016, regulates the entire chemotherapy process, emphasizing that blood donation should be voluntary,

A A Anti-B e anti-Rh A, AB A, A+, AB e AB+

B B Anti-A e anti-Rh O e B- B, B+, AB e AB+

Blood type Agglutinogene Agglutinins Receives from Donates for A+ A Anti-B O, O+, A e A+ A+, AB+

B+ B Anti-A O, O+, B e B+ B+, AB+

AB A e B None All the AB+ e AB O+ None Anti-A e anti-B O+ e O All the + O None Anti-A, anti-B e, anti-RH O All

AB+ A e B None All AB+

when blood transfusion is required, observed in Table 1 [11].

risks will lead to the donor's temporary or final rejection.

male, weighing 75 kg, has the total volume of 4680 ml of blood.

must be between 16 and 69 years old and weigh, at least, 50 kg [1].

2.1 Blood donation


On the other hand, when analyzing the reasons that lead to the practice of blood donation, we find [4]:


Some different strategies, such as demythologization and clarification and awareness about the process [5, 6], tax incentives, benefits, transport to donation site, and campaigns [7, 8], are used in several countries for attracting new donors, but it is still necessary to mobilize large capital and personal investments.

With this problem of the lack of blood donations, we developed some strategies to try to engage more people with the cause. The first step was to identify the best channel for propagation of the tool to be developed. From this need, the creation of an app was chosen, added to the social network, aimed at encouraging blood donation. Social networks reach about 1.5 billion people. In Brazil, social networks reach about 80% of the population [9].

However, the elaboration of this work, by this way, would be just another social network application focused on blood donation. In order to contribute positively to this development, the concept of gamification, for project implementation, was applied. Therefore, the objective of this work was to develop a mobile application, called BloodHero, whose main purpose is to attract and retain new blood donors, arousing empathy through virtual social networks, encouraging, and educating through gamification methodology. This application will promote interaction between users (donors, people able to donor, and patients who need donors) in publications and chats through bonus points, achievements—rewards—and levels of experience.
