Rachel Thorpe

• PhD
• Research Fellow at Australian Red Cross

Background and Objectives Trans and gender‐diverse people who wish to donate blood face significant barriers with policies and procedures differing across countries. It remains critical to explore the experiences and perspectives of trans and gender‐diverse people in different locations to understand challenges in local systems. We undertook a qual...

Background People with hereditary hemochromatosis (HHC) require therapeutic phlebotomy on an ongoing basis. Little is known about the facilitators and barriers they experience in donating at a blood collection agency (BCA), nor how these impact their willingness to engage in an ongoing relationship with a BCA. This study explored the experiences of...

Background Currently in Australia, men are deferred from donating blood if they have had sex with another man within the past 3 months. However, a proposed gender‐neutral assessment (GNA) process will ask all donors questions about sex with new or multiple recent partners, with deferral based on responses to a question about anal sex. Understanding...

In recognition of the impact of whole‐blood donation on body iron stores, there has been an increased focus assessing the efficacy of strategies to minimise the risk of iron deficiency (ID). Whilst donor behaviour is an important determinant of success, this literature is yet to be fully synthesised to help guide blood collection agencies when impl...

To meet the priority healthcare needs of any population there must be a consistently available blood supply donated by willing donors. Due to this universal need for blood, retaining blood donors remains an ongoing challenge for blood services internationally. Encouraging psychological ownership, or the feeling of ownership one experiences over a p...

Background and Objectives Maintaining stable blood supplies presents an increasing challenge for blood collection agencies (BCAs). Novel and multidisciplinary approaches and research have been called for to understand the mechanisms underlying the trends. The current body of sociological research on blood donation is a potentially valuable resource...

Blood collection agencies are integrating precision medicine techniques to improve and individualise blood donor and recipient outcomes. These organisations have a role to play in ensuring equitable application of precision medicine technologies for both donors and transfusion recipients. Precision medicine techniques, including molecular genetic t...

This study examines how the institutional context informs the ways in which healthy recipients relate to genomic information. Through focus group data, it considers the trend of blood collection agencies (BCA) moving to extend donor genotyping. We investigated how receipt of genomic information is viewed as fitting into the contract of altruistic,...

Background In Australia, a man cannot donate blood if he has had sex with another man within the past 3 months. However, this policy has been criticized as being discriminatory as it does not consider lower risk subgroups, and led to calls for modifications to the policy that more accurately distinguish risk among gay, bisexual, and other men who h...

Background Athletes are a key group from which likely eligible donors could be sourced. While blood donation has been popularized as detrimental to athletic performance, little is known about how athletes perceive blood donation. The aim of this study was to investigate athletes' perceptions of the impacts of donating blood on their athletic perfor...

The health and well-being of volunteer donors is of critical concern for blood collection agencies responsible for ensuring a stable supply of blood products. However, lay understandings of the impact of donating blood on health remain poorly understood. As lay perceptions are likely to influence critical decisions about donation, understanding the...

Background: Reliable estimates of the population proportion eligible to donate blood are needed by blood collection agencies to model the likely impact of changes in eligibility criteria and inform targeted population-level education, recruitment, and retention strategies. In Australia, the sole estimate was calculated 10+ years ago. With several...

Background: Donor milk banks have strict donor screening criteria to ensure that donor milk is safe for premature or hospitalized babies. Yet little evidence is available to understand how potential donors, who are often breastfeeding their own infants, experience being ineligible ("deferred") to donate their milk to a milk bank. Materials and Meth...

Background Genomic testing is already used by blood collection agencies (BCAs) to identify rare blood types and ensure the best possible matching of blood. With ongoing technological developments broader applications, such as identification of genetic markers relevant to blood donor health, will become feasible. However, the perspectives of blood d...

Background: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Australian donors aged 70 and over were advised to temporarily stop donating. The aim of this research was to understand the factors associated with some of these donors continuing to donate despite the advice, and whether adherence to the advice had negative implications for donor retention. Study desi...

Background: As over-communication can negatively impact consumer behavior, it is important to understand the impact of research communication on donors' future donation behavior. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of (i) being invited to participate in research, and (ii) participating in that research, on future donation behavior....

Background and Objectives Maintaining a panel of committed anti-D donors is crucial for the production of anti-D immunoglobulin to prevent haemolytic disease of the foetus and newborn. Given low numbers of donors in the Australian panel, there is a need to better understand motivators and barriers specific to anti-D donors. Materials and Methods A...

COVID-19 has posed unprecedented challenges to health systems around the world, including blood collection agencies (BCAs). Many countries, such as Canada and Australia, that rely on non-remunerated voluntary donors saw an initial drop in donors in the early days of the pandemic followed by a return to sufficient levels of the blood supply. BCA mes...

COVID-19 has posed unprecedented challenges to health systems around the world, including bloodcollection agencies (BCAs). Many countries, such as Canada and Australia, that rely on non-remuneratedvoluntary donors, saw an initial drop in donors in the early days of the pandemic followed by a return tosufficient levels of the blood supply. BCA messa...

Rationale Blood collection agencies face ongoing challenges in retaining voluntary donors to meet the demand for blood and blood-related products by healthcare services. A known deterrent to continued blood donation is the experience of a vasovagal reaction (VVR). However, there has been little research into donors’ experiences of these reactions a...

Background and objectives With greater numbers of Australians living longer with healthier lives, older adults could make a greater contribution to whole‐blood and plasma donor panels. Understanding the experiences and attitudes of middle‐aged to older Australians towards blood donation may provide opportunities to develop strategies to engage, rec...

With the changing ethnic composition of the Australian population there has been a growing number of patients requiring transfusions of rarer blood types. People from ethnic minority groups are generally less likely to donate blood and this can lead to shortages for some patients from these communities. In this article we report the findings of a q...

Objectives To determine the motivators and barriers to COVID‐19 convalescent plasma donation by those in the United Kingdom who have been diagnosed with or who have had symptoms of SARS‐CoV‐2 (COVID‐19) but who have not donated. Background Convalescent plasma from people recovered from COVID‐19 with sufficient antibody titres is a potential option...

Background and objectives: Blood Collection Agencies in several countries have implemented strategies to increase the number of plasmapheresis collections. Despite this, a sizable minority of plasma donors lapse from donation each year, with little research conducted on this topic. An understanding of the plasma donation experience from the perspe...

In the context of the global COVID‐19 pandemic, blood collection agencies (BCAs) around the world are operating under unprecedented conditions. As social scientists in donor research in Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands, we provide some early observations on donor and public responses to the pandemic and identify areas for donor research movin...

In the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic, blood collection agencies (BCAs) around the world are operating under unprecedented conditions. As social scientists in donor research in Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands, we provide some early observations on donor and public responses to the pandemic and identify areas for donor research movin...

BACKGROUND As demand for plasma‐derived products grows, retention of voluntary nonremunerated plasmapheresis donors is crucial for many blood collection agencies. Currently, there is limited evidence of how to encourage first‐time plasmapheresis donors to return and establish a high‐frequency donation routine. This study tested the effectiveness of...

Background and objectives: Encouraging existing plasma donors to donate more frequently is a key objective for blood donation services committed to expanding yield through voluntary non-remunerated plasmapheresis donation. This requires an understanding of donors' perspectives on their current donation practice and how this relates to their knowle...

In the context of decreased demand for whole blood and increased demand for plasma‐derived products, donors in Australia are increasingly being asked to convert from whole‐blood to plasmapheresis donations. Plasmapheresis is a different type of donation to whole blood as the process takes longer and can be engaged in more frequently. What is unknow...

In the context of decreased demand for whole-blood and increased demand for plasma-derived products, donors in Australia are increasingly being asked to convert from whole-blood to plasmapheresis donations. Plasmapheresis is a different type of donation to whole-blood as the process takes longer, and can be engaged in more frequently. What is unkno...

See article on page 1267–1272, in this issue

People born in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia are overrepresented in HIV notifications in Australia. Just under half of all notifications among people from sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia are diagnosed late. Increased HIV testing among these communities is necessary to ensure early diagnosis, better care and reduce likelihood of HIV on...

Background Universal access to the hepatitis C direct acting antiviral (DAAs) regimens presents a unique opportunity to eliminate hepatitis C in Australia. Large numbers of Australians have already been cured using these treatments, however, the numbers presenting for treatment have begun to plateau. This study explored how people experienced and u...

This article explores older Australian women’s sexual subjectivities in the context of cultural expectations of generational change in later-life sexual practices. Drawing upon interview and journal data from 28 women aged 55 to 81, it considers diverse recollections of their sexual pasts and their current subjective expectations of sex and intimac...

Scholars have anticipated that women who grew up during the 1960s may resist cultural pressures to achieve a feminine appearance into old age. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews and personal journals from Australian women aged between 55 and 72, I argue that older women’s choices of dress and appearance are disciplined by their applica...

This paper examines the role of the research process in shaping the construction of knowledge about sensitive topics in in-depth interviews particularly with regard to researcher identity and cultural influences or norms. We argue that these influences shape all aspects of the research process and that researchers will benefit from reflecting upon...

Introduction More than 27,000 Australians currently live with HIV. Most of these people have access to quality clinical care and antiretroviral treatment (ART) and can expect good general health. However, HIV-related stigma is a problem and many people living with HIV experience poorer than average mental health. Issues of aging are also of increas...

You can download this article from https://theconversation.com/ageing-gracefully-how-women-steer-the-line-between-inauthentic-and-old-35726

This paper written for a wide academic and popular audience discuss the results from a qualitative study on older Australian women who discuss their sexual lives and relationships. A copy of the full article can be download from https://theconversation.com/sex-desire-and-pleasure-in-later-life-australian-womens-experiences-35725

Despite the body being central to the experience of ageing, little attention has been paid to how relationships may mediate the experience of ageing bodies. This article considers older Australian women's accounts of their bodies and of embodied experiences in the context of both long-term and newly formed intimate relationships. Drawn from a broad...

Evidence suggests that Baby Boomer women may ‘do’ ageing differently to previous generations (Calasanti and Slevin, 2001). To date, there has been only minimal research considering Australian Baby Boomer women’s embodied experiences of ageing. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews and personal journals from 28 Australian women aged betwee...

Older age is often associated with asexuality. That is, older individuals are not viewed as desiring of sex, nor as sexually desirable to others. Broader social and cultural norms that downplay women’s sexual desire and agency further compound these phenomena. Whether this popular image accurately reflects older women’s sexual desires, behaviour an...

In this article, we look at the regulation of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) from the perspectives of service providers and regulators in three Australian states, each with a different approach to regulating ART. We explore how the interests of the child were considered in the development of recent legislative changes, namely, the establish...

A new Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act was passed in Victoria on December 2008 and came into effect on 1 January 2010. The new legislation changed who was eligible for assisted reproductive technology (ART) and the types of services that clinics could provide. This article reports on interviews with service providers in Victoria who experience f...

Since the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy, people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) are living longer, into older age, and therefore presenting a host of new challenges for health and social service providers. However, not all PLWHA are likely to experience similar transitions into older age. In particular, research has yet to fully...

A social marketing campaign ran in 2004 in the Victoria to increase rates of HIV/sexually transmissible infection (STI) testing among men having sex with men (MSM). To evaluate the initiative data from HIV sentinel surveillance, laboratory data on testing for HIV/STIs and STI/HIV testing uptake reported in annual surveys were analysed. The sentinel...

This article takes the use of complementary medicine by a group of people living with HIV/AIDS as the starting point for exploring the options for living with chronic illness in contemporary western societies. Some authors have suggested that the situation of living with chronic illness may not be a significant departure from the process of negotia...

This paper discusses the perspectives of 18 people who were living with HIV/AIDS in Melbourne, Australia, and who were using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) alongside biomedicine. I argue that although people may perceive the holistic focus of CAM to be more desirable than the more pathogenic focus of biomedicine, a holistic approach i...

Objectives: To assess the size, distribution and changes in the population of homosexual and bisexual men in Australia, and the capacity of available measures to make this estimation. Methods: We used data from five sources: the Australian Study of Health and Relationships, the Gay Community Periodic Surveys, HIV Futures, the Health in Men cohort s...

Objectives: To determine if there were any differences in antiretroviral treatment (ART) use across the three eastern states of Australia, New South Wales (NSW), Victoria and Queensland, during the period 1997 to 2006. Methods: We used data from a clinic-based cohort, the Australian HIV Observational Database (AHOD), to determine the proportion of...

There have been clear gender differences in the experience of living with HIV in Australia since the start of the epidemic. This paper examines the patterns of health service use and experiences at those services over a period of six years. The results reported here are drawn from the HIV Futures surveys, four consecutive national, cross-sectional...

OBJECTIVES: To assess the size, distribution and changes in the population of homosexual and bisexual men in Australia, and the capacity of available measures to make this estimation. METHODS: We used data from five sources: the Australian Study of Health and Relationships, the Gay Community Periodic Surveys, HIV Futures, the Health in Men cohort s...

This paper characterises the health and wellbeing of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Australia. The HIV Futures 4 Survey is a self-complete anonymous questionnaire distributed through multiple sites. Data were collected on health, clinical and social variables. There were 1059 responses, approximately 8% of the estimated HIV-positive populat...

Prevalence of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) (apnea-hypopnea index [AHI] > or = 5) in acute stroke patients ranges between 44% and 95%, compared to the community prevalence, 9 to 35% for women and 8 to 57% for men [age range 30-60 years]. Limited data exists beyond 3 months following stroke. We assessed the prevalence of SDB amongst stroke surviv...

The professional and legal regulation of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in Australia is a vast maze of intersecting laws and guidelines which place restrictions on the provision of services such as infertility treatment, surrogacy, sex selection for social reasons, donor insemination, pre-implantation diagnosis and human embryo research....