All Outputs (9)

Narratives, Emotions, and Slogans: Community Co-designed Campaigns to Recruit Black Blood Donors from the General UK Population (2025)
Journal Article
FERGUSON, E., Dawe-Lane, E., Mills, R., Oteng-Attakora, K., Di Angelantonio, E., Wood, A., Masser, B., & Okubanjo, A. (in press). Narratives, Emotions, and Slogans: Community Co-designed Campaigns to Recruit Black Blood Donors from the General UK Population. Health Psychology,

Background: Blood is an essential medicine, and to deliver effective healthcare, blood services need to attract donors who represent the diverse demographics of healthcare users. At present, there is a substantial shortfall of Black donors. We report... Read More about Narratives, Emotions, and Slogans: Community Co-designed Campaigns to Recruit Black Blood Donors from the General UK Population.

The infected blood inquiry: Impact on public perceptions of blood supply risk, safety, and donation attitudes (2024)
Journal Article
Mills, R., Merz, E., Croucher, M., Masser, B., Brailsford, S. R., Smith, R., & Ferguson, E. (2024). The infected blood inquiry: Impact on public perceptions of blood supply risk, safety, and donation attitudes. Transfusion Medicine, 34(6), 478-490. https://doi.org/10.1111/tme.13108

Background: The UK’s Infected Blood Inquiry (IBI) highlighted a major public health scandal, with at least 30,000 people infected and more than 3,000 deaths attributable to infected blood and blood products. This study investigates the impact of the... Read More about The infected blood inquiry: Impact on public perceptions of blood supply risk, safety, and donation attitudes.

Questions on travel and sexual behaviours negatively impact ethnic minority donor recruitment: Effect of negative word-of-mouth and avoidance (2024)
Journal Article
Ferguson, E., Mills, R., Dawe-Lane, E., Khan, Z., Reynolds, C., Davison, K., Edge, D., Smith, R., O'Hagan, N., Desai, R., Croucher, M., Eaton, N., & Brailsford, S. R. (2024). Questions on travel and sexual behaviours negatively impact ethnic minority donor recruitment: Effect of negative word-of-mouth and avoidance. Vox Sanguinis, 119(12), 1245-1256. https://doi.org/10.1111/vox.13748

Background and Objectives
Donor selection questions differentially impacting ethnic minorities can discourage donation directly or via negative word-of-mouth. We explore the differential impact of two blood safety questions relating to (i) sexual co... Read More about Questions on travel and sexual behaviours negatively impact ethnic minority donor recruitment: Effect of negative word-of-mouth and avoidance.

The power of arts‐based film interventions to encourage Black blood donors (2024)
Journal Article
Mills, R., Okubanjo, A., Acheampong, N., Croucher, M., Eaton, N., Kazi, A., Di Angelantonio, E., Wood, A., Barbara, M., & Ferguson, E. (2024). The power of arts‐based film interventions to encourage Black blood donors. Transfusion, 64(11), 2133-2143. https://doi.org/10.1111/trf.17963

Background: Blood services must consider innovative ways to encourage more Black people to donate to enhance the efficacy of treatments. We evaluate how two innovative arts-based approaches (co-designed and locally produced films and a large-scale Ma... Read More about The power of arts‐based film interventions to encourage Black blood donors.

The prototypical UK blood donor, homophily and blood donation: Blood donors are like you, not me (2024)
Journal Article
Ferguson, E., Bowen, S., Mills, R., Reynolds, C., Davison, K., Lawrence, C., Maharaj, R., Starmer, C., Barr, A., Williams, T., Croucher, M., & Brailsford, S. R. (in press). The prototypical UK blood donor, homophily and blood donation: Blood donors are like you, not me. Vox Sanguinis, https://doi.org/10.1111/vox.13731

Background and Objectives
Homophily represents the extent to which people feel others are like them and encourages the uptake of activities they feel people like them do. Currently, there are no data on blood donor homophily with respect to (i) peop... Read More about The prototypical UK blood donor, homophily and blood donation: Blood donors are like you, not me.

Exploring the nuances of cooperation in public health – a critical reflection of default policies and reputation effects: a reply to 'Nurturing, nudging and navigating the increasingly precarious nature of cooperation in public health: The cases of vaccination and organ donation' by Larson and Toledo (2023)
Journal Article
Ferguson, E., & Mills, R. (2023). Exploring the nuances of cooperation in public health – a critical reflection of default policies and reputation effects: a reply to 'Nurturing, nudging and navigating the increasingly precarious nature of cooperation in public health: The cases of vaccination and organ donation' by Larson and Toledo. Global Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Current Affairs and Applied Contemporary Thought, 13(3-4), https://doi.org/10.1332/20437897Y2023D000000008

Exploring the nuances of cooperation in public health – a critical reflection on default policies and reputation effects: a reply to ‘Nurturing, nudging and navigating the increasingly precarious nature of cooperation in public health: the cases of vaccination and organ donation’ by Heidi J. Larson and Alexander H. Toledo (2023)
Journal Article
Ferguson, E., & Mills, R. (2023). Exploring the nuances of cooperation in public health – a critical reflection on default policies and reputation effects: a reply to ‘Nurturing, nudging and navigating the increasingly precarious nature of cooperation in public health: the cases of vaccination and organ donation’ by Heidi J. Larson and Alexander H. Toledo. Global Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Current Affairs and Applied Contemporary Thought, 13(3-4), 323-343. https://doi.org/10.1332/20437897y2023d000000008

Effects of Pet Dogs for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and their Families: Expectations versus reality (2016)
Journal Article
Wright, H., Hall, S., Hames, A., Hardiman, J., Burgess, A., Team, P., Mills, R., & Mills, D. (2016). Effects of Pet Dogs for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and their Families: Expectations versus reality. Human-Animal Interactions, 4(2), 38 - 58. https://doi.org/10.1079/hai.2016.0009

Previous studies have examined the specific benefits of therapy and assistance dogs on children with autism, but until recently only anecdotes existed concerning the benefits of pet dogs. We conducted structured interviews with 40 parents of children... Read More about Effects of Pet Dogs for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and their Families: Expectations versus reality.

Pet Dogs Improve Family Functioning and Reduce Anxiety in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (2015)
Journal Article
Wright, H., Hall, S., Hames, A., Hardiman, J., Mills, R., Project Team, P., & Mills, D. (2015). Pet Dogs Improve Family Functioning and Reduce Anxiety in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Anthrozoös, 28(4), 611-624. https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2015.1070003

There is increasing evidence to suggest that dogs are beneficial for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in therapy sessions, and anecdotal reports suggest that dogs may have wider benefits, in a family setting. This study investigated the e... Read More about Pet Dogs Improve Family Functioning and Reduce Anxiety in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.