Raising awareness may increase the likelihood of hematopoietic stem cell donation: analysis of a nationwide survey using Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

<title>Abstract</title> <bold>Background</bold>: In Italy, the demand for allogeneic transplantation exceeds the number of compatible donors registered in the Italian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (IBMDR). As various factors likely contribute to the donor shortage, our aim was to explore the knowledge, beliefs, opinions, values, and feelings of the Italian population regarding stem cell donation. <bold>Methods</bold>: An online survey was shared through social media. Two groups of respondents were retrospectively identified as those who were (currently or previously) registered on the IBMDR (Donor Group) and those who had never registered (Non-Donor Group). Statistical analyses were performed to confirm the relationship between respondents’ knowledge level and their willingness to donate. Then, a generative artificial intelligence strategy was applied using questionnaire responses as features to train 6 different classifiers for machine learning process. The aim was to predict the probability of IBMDR enrollment. <bold>Results</bold>: A total of 1518 respondents from throughout Italy participated in the study. Among NDG, a lower level of knowledge of donation needs (51.7% vs 24.4%, p&lt;0.001) and negative feelings such as fear (Z=-2.2642, p=0.02), perplexity (Z=4.4821, p&lt;0.001), and uncertainty (Z=3.3425, p&lt;0.001) emerged. A higher level of knowledge about stem cell donation and associated processes predicted a greater likelihood of IBMDR enrollment. The machine learning analysis showed an area under the ROC curve (AUC) ranging from 0.65 to 0.81, depending on the classifier. <bold>Conclusions</bold>: The results underscore the need to improve strategies to raise awareness and knowledge of stem cell donation and its associated process among the Italian population.

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