Attitude toward blood donation among medical and nonmedical students across Karachi

Abstract

Aim:To evaluate the factors that motivate and discourage medical and nonmedical students from donating blood voluntarily and to assess the level of awareness and knowledge regarding blood donation.Materials and Methods:We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study from August 2011 to May 2012 across different universities of Karachi covering both private and public sector. Predesigned questionnaires were filled by students. A total of 690 students participated in the study, 345 from each. Data collected was analyzed using SPSS Version 17.0. Simple frequencies and percentages were calculated, and Pearson Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were applied to calculate association between different variables with P value set as significant when <0.05.Results:Mean age of the students was found to be between 21 and 23 (64.6%) in medical, whereas in nonmedical, 66.7% fell in this age group. Astonishingly, blood donors in nonmedical (27%) were quite more than that in medical group, where they were only 18%. Males constituted the majority in both of the groups. Most commonly reported factor that motivated blood donation in medical group was feeling of self-satisfaction (40.2%), whereas in nonmedical group, 32.9% reported that they had only donated blood when their friends/family were in need. When asked about the adverse effects after blood donation, weakness was common among both medical and nonmedical, i.e. 46.8% and 46.7%, respectively. Among the factors that impeded our subjects from donating blood were primarily health concerns in medical students (19%), whereas in nonmedical students they claimed they were not approached by anyone and were unaware of the importance of blood donation (34.8%).Conclusion:Proportion of blood donors was significantly low in both medical and nonmedical students, especially in females. Most important motivating factor in medical students was feeling of self–satisfaction, whereas in nonmedical students, it was family/friend in need of blood transfusion. Never approached by anyone/awareness about the importance of donating blood was the major discouragement factor seen in both medical and nonmedical groups.

Motivations and attitudes towards the act of blood donation among undergraduate health science students

“…In our setting, the proportion of who had ever donated blood is lower than the one reported in other similar settings where the proportion of blood donors among undergraduate students varied between 18% and 41% [19,[21][22][23][24]26,27]. Such a finding highlights the need of planning strategies in order to motivate undergraduate students in our setting towards blood donation.…”

“…Data collection tool (DCT) was a self-administered questionnaire designed by the authors and based on a review of the literature about blood donation [15,22,25,[27][28][29]. All students who participated and answered to the questionnaire were informed in advance that their contribution would be voluntary and that all information obtained would be used for the only objective of the research.…”

“…Undergraduate students are a preferred target for blood donation campaigns, as they constitute a young healthy and well-informed group [19,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. The Portuguese Institute of Blood and Transplantation (IPST) has been organizing blood harvesting campaigns in Higher Education Institutions, enrolling undergraduate students.…”

Knowledge about Blood Donation among Undergraduate Students of GMC, Patiala, Punjab, India

“…This study suggests that lessons about blood donation should be incorporated in the initial stages of higher education and periodic awareness program should be there for recruitment and retention of donors. This is in contrast to reports by Anwer et al [23] and Hosain et al [22], in which they discussed that greater knowledge does not lead to blood donation. Bani and Giussani [28] reported that higher rate of deferrals in women are responsible for low proportion of female donors.…”

Current approaches to increase blood donations in resource‐limited countries

“…). A second study conducted on students reported that non‐medical students had given blood more frequently than medical students (27 vs 18%) (Anwer et al, ). A third Pakistani study showed that 90% of high school students considered saving lives as important, but lack of knowledge and a range of fears deterred them from donating blood (Thaver et al, ).…”