Minority donors more likely to use ‘blood money’
Younger, minority donors are more likely to use plasma donations as emergency sources of money than others are, according to a study by an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder.
“Plasma is this source of income. It’s a way that people are accessing money for emergencies, just like payday loans,” said Emily Gallagher who teaches finance at the Leeds School of Business. The study, co-authored by Gallagher, was published in 2021 and will be released in The Review of Financial Studies academic journal later this year.
Gallagher’s study was inspired by a national survey she helped conduct while doing post-doctoral work. She included questions for participants about plasma donation and was surprised by the number of plasma donors.
“More people were doing this than were going to payday loan shops, yet there are dozens — if not more — studies on the role of payday loan stores in household financial well-being,” said Gallagher.
Pharmaceutical companies in the United States typically compensate donors between $30 and $70 per plasma donation, according to Gallagher’s research. Plasma is used in medications that treat immune disorders and other illnesses, according to a press statement about Gallagher’s study. In charting the locations of plasma centers, she also noted that they generally opened in lower-income areas with larger proportions of minorities.
“If a neighborhood has more payday lenders they tend to be more likely to get a plasma center,” said Gallagher.
Additionally, Gallagher found that even when controlling for factors like the location of plasma centers, there appeared to be significant demographic trends among donors.
“We still find that plasma donors tend to be younger — they tend to be under age 36. They’re more likely to identify as male and as Black; they are more likely to be un- or underemployed,” said Gallagher. “They are usually very low-income, so making less than $20,000 per year.”
The short-term financial benefits of plasma donation Gallagher encountered were clear. However, her study notes that the World
Health Organization recommends against companies not monetize blood products like plasma. The group also advises that blood donation be fully voluntary and unpaid.
Gallagher also expressed concern over the lack of regulation and research into frequent plasma donation, especially since U.S. regulations allow plasma to be donated up to two times over a period of seven days.
“The paper points out how unique the U.S. is in this regard. Other countries do not have such lax regulations around people selling their plasma two times per week,” said Gallagher. “It also points out the lack of research that has been done on the longerterm health effects of the current frequencies.”
According to Gallagher’s data, last updated in 2021, Colorado has 28 plasma donation centers, located mainly on the Front Range.
The only place to donate plasma in Boulder is not included in Gallagher’s list. Vitalant Blood Donation Center at 3113 28th St. accepts very few plasma donations and does not compensate donors.
“It’s incredibly safe … It’s a single-arm donation process, and it’s a smaller gauge needle than blood donation,” said donor relations specialist Tucker Richardson.
The process of plasma donation involves removing blood from the donor, separating blood cells from plasma with a specialty machine and then returning the blood cells to the donor. Richardson added that most of the plasma removed will replenish in the body after 20 days.
Gallagher said that while she had concerns about the frequency at which compensated individuals donate plasma, she hopes her paper draws attention to the lack of research and inspires further studies.
“There has been an incredible lack of research on this relative to its size and its growth rate. And so I wanted to draw attention to how important this source of funds has become for lower-income households,” said Gallagher.
“Hopefully in drawing attention to it, I will also draw eyes to some of those ethical questions that I can’t answer and hopefully draw more research into the health questions.”