Knowledge and perceptions of South African blood donors towards biobanking and stool donation.

Background: The complexity of contexts and varied purposes for which biome donation are requested are unknown in South Africa.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to provide strategic data towards actualisation of whether a stool donor bank may be established as a collaborative between Western Cape Blood Services (WCBS) and the University of Cape Town (UCT).

Method: We designed a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey to determine willingness of WCBS blood donors to donate stool specimens for microbiome biobanking. The study was conducted between 01 June 2022 and 01 July 2022 at three WCBS donation centres in Cape Town, South Africa. Anonymous blood donors who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled. Anonymised demographic and interview data were analysed statistically.

Results: Analysis of responses from 209/231 blood donors demonstrated in a logistic regression model that compensation (p < 0.001) and 'societal benefit outweighs inconvenience' beliefs (p = 7.751e-05) were covariates significantly associated with willingness to donate stool. Age was borderline significant at a 5% level (p = 0.0556). Most willing stool donors indicated that donating stool samples would not affect blood donations (140/157, 90%). Factors decreasing willingness to donate were stool collection being unpleasant or embarrassing.

Conclusion: The survey provides strategic data for the establishment of a stool bank and provided an understanding of the underlying determinants regarding becoming potential donors.

Contribution: This is the first report on the perspectives of potential participants in donating samples towards a stool microbiome biobank in South Africa, a necessity for faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT).