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| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2014 | Volume
: 5
| Issue : 2 | Page : 51-53 |
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A study on knowledge, attitude, and practice on blood donation among health professional students in Anand: Gujarat
Killol N Desai1, Vidya Satapara2
1 Department of Pathology, Pramukhswami Medical Collage, Karamsad, India
2 Department of Anatomy, M. P. Shah Medical Collage, Jamnagar, Gujarat, India
| Date of Web Publication | 19-Jul-2014 |
Correspondence Address:
Killol N Desai
Plot No-592/1, Sector 3/C, Gandhinagar - 382 006, Gujarat
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/1658-5127.137140
Context: Role of youngsters in voluntary blood donation (VBD) is crucial to meet the demand of safe blood. Therefore understanding the various factors contributing to knowledge, attitude, and practice of VBD among college students is important. Aims: The present study aims to assess the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding blood donation among the health care students. Settings and Design: Cross-sectional study done at Anand from July 2012 to December 2013. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1000 health care medical students at Anand, Gujarat, India using a structured survey questionnaire. Statistical Analysis Used: The data were tabulated, and master chart was prepared. Analysis was performed by using the percentage. Results: Overall knowledge on blood donation among respondents was 37.3%, majority of the participants (78.7%) never donated blood in which 43.7% of the nondonors had negative attitude like blood donation leads to weakness (10.2%), anemia (25.5%), and 8.0% of nondonors felt that blood donation leads to reduced immunity. Majority of nondonors showed a positive attitude (53.1%) by expressing their willingness to donate blood if they were asked to donate blood (35.3%), about 9.8% of the nondonors don't know the importance of blood donation and 11.2% of nondonors don't know where to donate blood. In this study, 11.5% of students had donated blood only once, in which 38.8% of blood donors said no privacy was provided while donation, few (12.2%) had experienced some discomfort after donation and 50.4% of respondent said that they have not tried again. Conclusions: The present study recommends that even health care students' needs to be educated about the importance, awareness and motivation of blood donation on a regular basis and addressing the problems faced, while blood donation will strengthen the recruitment and retention of blood donors to donate blood on a regular basis. Keywords: Blood bank, health care professional students, voluntary blood donation
How to cite this article:
Desai KN, Satapara V. A study on knowledge, attitude, and practice on blood donation among health professional students in Anand: Gujarat. J Appl Hematol 2014;5:51-3 |
How to cite this URL:
Desai KN, Satapara V. A study on knowledge, attitude, and practice on blood donation among health professional students in Anand: Gujarat. J Appl Hematol [serial online] 2014 [cited 2023 Jun 4];5:51-3. Available from: https://www.jahjournal.org/text.asp?2014/5/2/51/137140 |
| Introduction | |  |
Blood can save millions of life. The requirement of blood and blood products in a country depends on the population, health care structure, prevalence of conditions requiring regular transfusions, such as hemophilia and thalassemia etc., availability of surgical centers using modern sophisticated techniques, and awareness among clinicians regarding the judicious use of blood. However, problem regarding a permanent shortage of blood is observed in blood services all over the world. [1] The only source of blood is by blood donation. [2] However, recruitment of voluntary, nonremunerated blood donors poses major challenges to transfusion services throughout the world. [3] As per World Health Organization (WHO) norms, 1% of the population is generally the minimum needed to meet the country's most basic requirements for blood. [4] In India, during the year 2006-2007, voluntary blood donation (VBD) was only 54.4% and it increased to 79.4% during the year 2010-2011. [5] Every year increase in population along with an increase in life expectancy rate, urban development and associated increase in accidents and specialized surgeries requiring blood, the rate of blood usage is on the rises.
Internationally, regular voluntary nonremunerated blood donors, who donate blood out of altruism, are considered safe blood donors. In many countries, continuous efforts are needed to achieve 100% VBD. Even though in Indian law forbidden collection of blood from paid donors, many times health care facilities forced to accept blood from paid donors as there are scarcity of voluntary blood donors. [2] It is well-established that paid donors constitute at a group with high risk behavior leading to greater chances of transfusion transmitted infections in the recipients. Hence, an awareness through education and motivation of the young people about the VBD are an important for recruitment and retention of the voluntary nonnumerated blood donors. According to WHO, an estimated 38% of reported VBDs are contributed by people under the age of 25 years. WHO also insist countries to focus on young people to achieve 100% regular voluntary nonnumerated blood donation. [4] Young students are healthy, active, dynamic, resourceful, and receptive and constitute a greater proportion in the Indian population. Those young students have to be encouraged, inspired and motivated to donate blood voluntarily on a regular basis. This study has carried out to know the knowledge, attitude, and practice about blood donation among undergraduate health care medical students in Anand, Gujarat, India for effective blood donor recruitment and retention program.
| Subjects and methods | | |
This study was conducted among first year health care students in various health care institutes in Anand district in Gujarat. Thousand students participated on a voluntary basis. Male and female are equal in numbers and age of them <35 years. A briefing was given to the participants about the objective of this study and assured confidentiality in the collection of personal data. A well-structured validated and pretested questionnaire on knowledge, attitude and practice on blood donation was assessed among students through questions covering nature of donation, requirements for donation; test carried in the blood banks, storage, blood components, usage of blood and health benefits for blood donors. A scoring mechanism was used to understand knowledge level and attitude on blood donation; each correct answer was given one score and in practice reason for not a regular donor was assessed and results were expressed in percentage.
| Results | | |
In the present study, overall knowledge [Table 1] on blood donation among respondents was 37.3%, about 787 of the participants (78.7%) never donated blood and 43.7% of the nondonors have negative attitude [Table 1] like blood donation leads to weakness (10.2%), anemia (25.5%), and reduced immunity (8.0%). About 53.1% of nondonors showed a positive attitude [Table 1] by expressing their willingness to donate blood if they were asked to donate blood (35.3%), 9.8% of the nondonors don't know the importance and health benefits of blood donations and 11.2% of the nondonors don't know where to donate blood. About 115 students (11.5%) have donated blood only once [Table 1] and 98 student (9.8%) have donate blood more than once, among the blood donors, 38.8% of blood donors said that no privacy was provided, while donation, 12.2% of the donors had experienced some discomfort after donation and 50.4% of respondent said they have not asked again to donate blood.
| Discussion | | |
The present study assessed the knowledge, attitudes and practice regarding blood donations and transfusion services among the health care professional medical students in Anand, Gujarat, India. The main purpose of this study was to identify strategies and factors that influence the recruitment and retention of voluntary nonremunerated blood donors to achieve 100% VBD.
Knowledge on blood donation among students was measured using the following questions; which comprised of respondents' understanding on benefits of blood donation to donors; the general requirements to become an eligible donor, how many times in a year a healthy male and female can donate blood, volume of donated blood, number of days donated blood can be stored; components of donated blood; the maximum number of lives saved from the donated blood. The overall knowledge on blood donation among respondents was 37.3%. The present study showed that lack of awareness on blood donation was there even among the health care medical professional students. Hence, a periodic awareness program on blood donation in various educational institutions across India is needed in addition to the medical professional students to achieve a 100% VBD programs. The present study indicates that the majority of the participants (78.7%) never donated blood and observed positive attitude (53.1%). The reasons for nondonations were no one has ever asked to donate blood; lack of information on blood donation and its importance and don't know where to donate blood and negative attitude (43.7%) like blood donation makes the person weak, reduce immunity and leads to anemia. [6] The nondonors with a positive attitude should be motivated, and awareness about VBD should be provided to promote blood donation on a voluntary basis, while nondonors with the negative attitude are needed to be educated about the importance and health benefits upon blood donation. Their doubts regarding blood donation should be clarified, and they should be motivated to donate blood on a regular basis. This study clearly shows that respondents who donated blood once (11.5%) are not regular donors because 50.4% donors said no one has asked them to donate blood again. This indicates that these students are willing to donate blood on regular basis, but they need constant awareness about importance of blood donation and regular motivation. [7] About 38.8% of donors pointed out that there was no privacy during blood donation, while few (12.2%) expressed a little discomfort after blood donation. Provision of adequate privacy, awareness, communication materials and advertisements to address the fear factor may strengthen the recruitment and retention of voluntary blood donors to donate blood on regular basis to achieve 100% of blood donation only on voluntary basis. [8]
The present study concludes that students believe that they are less willing to take part in the VBD due to insufficient information. Hence, a periodic awareness program on VBD is needed for even among health care medical students. Students should lead from the front to donate blood regularly on a voluntary basis and also to take all necessary steps for spreading awareness about the advantages of blood donation not only for the recipient, but also for the donor himself could be a motivating factor. Making students aware of recent findings, like frequent and long-term blood donation is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular events in donors can motivate them to be regular donors. This study will also create awareness on blood donations among the entire student's community. Such studies are needed to be carried out at all district levels across the Gujarat to march toward 100% blood donation only on a voluntary basis in the Gujarat state, which will be spread to other states in India. My results are very similar to the study carried out in Tagore Medical College and Hospital, Matha Medical College and Research Institute, and Tagore Dental College and Hospital Chennai, Tamil Nadu, South India by Manikandan. [9]
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[Table 1]
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