|
 
 |
| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
|
| Year : 2018 | Volume
: 3
| Issue : 1 | Page : 46-51 |
|
A study on knowledge and awareness about blood donation amongst government medical, para-medical and nursing undergraduate students in Jamnagar, Gujarat
Ashishkumar Nathabhai Kanani, Jitendra H Vachhani, Shweta B Upadhyay, Spruha K Dholakiya
Department of Immunohematology and Blood Transfusion, M.P. Shah Government Medical College, G.G.G. Hospital, Jamnagar, Gujarat, India
| Date of Web Publication | 5-Apr-2018 |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Ashishkumar Nathabhai Kanani
Department of Immunohematology and Blood Transfusion, M.P. Shah Government Medical College, G.G.G. Hospital, Jamnagar, Gujarat
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/GJTM.GJTM_1_18
Aim and Objective: The aim of the study was to compare the reasons for blood donation and knowledge about blood donation among medical science undergraduate students. Materials and Methods: A random cross-sectional study was conducted among 500 government medical sciences' undergraduate students in Jamnagar during the period of 3 months (February 2017 to April 2017). It constitutes of MBBS, Dental, Ayurvedic, Physiotherapy, and Nursing College. A predesigned, pretested, self-administered questionnaire was devised to collect data. Data were collected after obtaining informed consent. Ethical clearance from the institute was obtained before the study. The results were analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2007 database sheet, and percentage and Chi-square test were applied to calculate association between different variables with P value set as significant when <0.05. Results: The response was gathered from a total of 500 respondents who voluntarily participated in the study. Out of them, 31.52% (n = 165) males and 14.03% (n = 335) females donated blood in their lifetime. Among MBBS students, 90.19% (n = 1100) had shown a good level of knowledge (given a positive response), whereas dental, ayurvedic, physiotherapy, and nursing student respondents showed the same by 78.27%, 71.64%, 89.55%, and 76.27%, respectively. Among factors that hindered the study cases from donating blood, the most important was that they were never approached by anyone (52.2% - whenever required) for blood donation. Conclusion: The conclusion of the present study indicates a greater awareness among the medical and physiotherapy students in comparison to nursing, dental, and ayurvedic students. Hence, these sectors need more targeted attempts to increase awareness and motivation among these masses, which will eventually enable us to increase the spectrum of motivated donors among the common people population.
Keywords: Awareness, blood donation, knowledge, medical science students, motivation
How to cite this article:
Kanani AN, Vachhani JH, Upadhyay SB, Dholakiya SK. A study on knowledge and awareness about blood donation amongst government medical, para-medical and nursing undergraduate students in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Glob J Transfus Med 2018;3:46-51 |
How to cite this URL:
Kanani AN, Vachhani JH, Upadhyay SB, Dholakiya SK. A study on knowledge and awareness about blood donation amongst government medical, para-medical and nursing undergraduate students in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Glob J Transfus Med [serial online] 2018 [cited 2023 Mar 28];3:46-51. Available from: https://www.gjtmonline.com/text.asp?2018/3/1/46/229321 |
| Introduction | |  |
Blood can save millions of lives, and young people are the hope and future of a safe blood supply in the world.[1] The theme of World Health Day in 2000 was “Blood saves life, Safe blood starts with me.” The first step for attaining it is to perform comprehensive studies about awareness of the population toward blood donation to gauge the present situation, beliefs, and both positive and negative attitudes of the population toward blood donation.[2] In India, 50%–60% population falls between 18 and 65 years of age, still we have blood crisis because of day-to-day number of patients increases more than blood donors. Moreover, recruitment of voluntary nonremunerated blood donors poses major challenges to transfusion services throughout the world.[3] Even after combined efforts from the Government and International Agencies such as Red Cross Society and WHO, the supply of safe blood is still in short of global demand.[4] The aim of the present study is to target youth of India. Selection of donors is an important means to improve the overall safety of blood supply.[5] Students consist of a large healthy and active group of voluntary blood donors to meet the demand of safe blood.
Because of background knowledge, medical science students have a positive attitude toward voluntary blood donation and can be a core group to educate many friends and relatives about the need for blood transfusion.[3] There is also a need to encourage, inspire, and motivate students to donate blood voluntarily and become a nonremunerated donor. Voluntary blood donors who donate blood once or twice a year are considered to be the safest [5],[6] as they have no reason to give false information about lifestyle factors which might place them at risk of transmitting infectious diseases.[7] The undergraduate medical students of Jamnagar, Gujarat, have joined hands together to form an independently running association under the name of Blood Donor Association (BDA) which has been working successfully since 40 years with the aim of providing maximum flow of voluntary blood donors and by organizing frequent blood donation campaigns to spread awareness among the masses.
As it happens to be a well-known fact that Jamnagar is a hub of thalassemia patients, government hospital, Jamnagar fulfills the regular demands of over 330 thalassemia children requiring a flow of over 500 blood units monthly. BDA has played a vital role in spreading public awareness about the importance and need of blood donation by organizing yearly rally and intercollege blood donation competitions on world blood donation day.
Aim and objective
The aim of the study was to compare the reasons for blood donation and knowledge about blood donation among medical science undergraduate students.
| Materials and Methods | | |
A random cross-sectional study was conducted among 500 government medical science undergraduate students in Jamnagar during the period of 3 months (February 2017 to April 2017). It constituted of MBBS, dental, ayurvedic, physiotherapy, and nursing college. A predesigned, pretested, self-administered questionnaire was devised to collect data. Data were collected after obtaining informed consent. Ethical clearance from the institute was obtained before the study. The results were analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2007 database sheet, and percentage and Chi-square test were calculated.
Data management and statistical analysis
A self-administered, predesigned questionnaire consisting of 19 questions was employed to collect data. Data collected were entered in Epidata software Version 3.1 and analyzed using IBM SPSS version 17.0.[8] Simple percentages were calculated and Pearson's Chi-square test was applied to calculate association between different variables with P value set as significant when <0.05.
| Results | | |
The response was gathered from a total of 500 respondents who voluntarily participated in the study. The study sample consisted of 165 males (33%) and 335 females (67%) [Chart 1]. Out of them, 31.52% (n = 165) males and 14.03% (n = 335) females donated blood in their lifetime. It was observed that, among 500 students, only 99 (19.8%) had donated blood one or more times and 401 (80.2%) had never donated blood. Blood donation was higher among physiotherapy students, i.e., 33% (n = 100), followed by MBBS 28%, nursing 15%, ayurvedic 14%, and dental 9% students.
- Chart 1 shows total percentage of male and female participants in the study population
- Chart 2 shows the percentage of blood donation among the study population
- Chart 3 shows distributions of subjects according to blood donation category wise
- Chart 4 shows factors hindering in the study population for blood donation
- Chart 5 shows male/female participates in the study population.
A level of knowledge of the population under the study with statistical significance was shown in [Table 1] (this significance calculated by comparing between MBBS students and other categories). | Table 1: Assessment of Knowledge about blood donation in the population with statistical significance: (Positive response mention here)
Click here to view |
Among MBBS students, 90.19% (n = 1100) had shown good level of knowledge (give a positive response), whereas dental, ayurvedic, physiotherapy, and nursing student respondents showed good level of knowledge among 78.27%, 71.64%, 89.55%, and 76.27%, respectively. Among factors that hindered the study cases from donating blood, the most important was that they were never approached by anyone (52.2% - whenever required) for blood donation.
[Table 2] summarizes the factors that prevented the study cases from blood donation.
| Discussion | | |
Medical science students are the potential source of safe and healthy blood supply that can be easily approached and their misconceptions and fears addressed because of their education and openness to discussion on fears and beliefs. In the present study, proportion of blood donors was significantly low (19.8%) and most of them acquired information about blood donation through BDA and majority donated blood in camps and on emergency call from blood bank. Among the donors, a significant proportion (51.5% [n = 99]) reported that they have donated blood only once. Surprisingly, the proportion of blood donors in MBBS students was lower than physiotherapy students. The number of medical students is comparable to similar studies conducted on university students by Wiwanitkit, Hosain et al., and Giri and Phalke.[9],[10],[11] A study by Rajagopalam and Pulimood reported that, out of 307 medical and nursing students, only 119 were donors. However, there was no significant difference among donors and nondonors with regard to their attitude toward blood donation.[12] In the present study, knowledge regarding blood donation was greater among MBBS students, but a lower number of donor in MBBS students indicate greater knowledge does not necessarily lead to blood donation.[10],[12] In the present study, number of female participants were more, still most donors were male, and there was a statistically significant association of blood donors of male gender (P< 0.000176) and female gender (P< 0.000443) (this association is calculated by comparing between MBBS students and other categories). This is in contrast to reports from the developed world such as Europe and the US where male-to-female ratio of blood donors is approximately one.
The study showed that most of the participants (80.2%) had never donated blood so far, which is almost comparable with studies among health professional students by Manikandan et al.(89.25%) and by Desai and Satapara (78.7%).[13],[14] However, it was far less among students in studies conducted by Kowsalya et al. (62.6%) and Giri and Phalke (52.5%).[11],[15] A study by Fernández Montoya et al. reported that the lack of information (43.6%) and different fears (32.3%) were the principal factors discouraging nondonors from donating blood, whereas donors had fewer fears about the possibility that donation can affect their health.[16] Thus, education of the general population and raising their awareness can significantly increase the proportion of voluntary nonremunerated blood donors. Bani and Giussani reported that two factors such as higher rate of deferrals and adverse reaction in women are responsible for a low proportion of female donors.[17] In the present study, these two factors may not be important because of higher education and socioeconomic status as compared to general population. Family replacement donors are the cornerstone of our blood donation system. If a patient requires blood, the family is responsible for arranging the donor and blood banks obtain blood from family members, irrespective of the blood group [18] to replenish their supplies because voluntary nonremunerated blood donation is insufficient to maintain the supply of blood to all patients.[19],[20]
A considerable number of medical science students reported that they were deferred at the time of donation (14.8%, n = 500) and many would donate blood whenever asked (52.2%, n = 500). If these nondonors are approached, counseled, and screened for fitness to donate blood, they may be motivated to donate blood voluntarily. A study by Alam and Masalmeh reported similar results in which 42.6% of nondonors replied that they were not approached by anybody and 38.3% considered themselves unfit for donating blood.[21] In blood bank, Jamnagar patient's blood requisition, blood and blood component issue rate, and total blood donation rate have increased up to 28%, 42%, and 32%, respectively, over the past 3 years. Still there is a gap of 10% in blood donation and issue rate, hence, we need to spread more awareness and motivate people to narrow down this gap.
A possible limitation in the present study is that it was focused on medical science students only whose education and socioeconomic status are generally higher from general population.[22] Hence, these results may not be applied to general population. However, as young and healthy sector of the society, medical science students are the potential source of safe blood and this study gives clues to what motivates and hinders them from donating blood voluntarily and if these shortfalls are addressed properly, we may not have to rely completely on replacement donors to fulfill total blood requirement. In the present scenario, government hospital, Jamnagar rarely faces blood crises because of increased public awareness and motivation about regular blood donation by BDA, IHBT Department, and Thalassemia Society and also regular blood donation camp organized by BDA, Voluntary NGOs, Thalassemia Society, etc.
| Conclusion | | |
The conclusion of the present study indicates a greater awareness among the medical and physiotherapy students in comparison to nursing, dental, and ayurvedic students. Hence, these sectors need more targeted attempts to increase awareness and motivation among these masses, which will eventually enable us to increase the spectrum of motivated donors among the common people.
Recommendations
The study is concluded by listing down the following points:
- The regular donors in addition to donating blood should motivate and educate the other people
- All one-time donors should be made aware that repeated donation at a proper gap of 3 months is an absolutely healthy practice
- Female donation needs to be encouraged more
- All the voluntary donors, who have been rejected or deferred for some reasons, should take corrective measures to eliminate the factors that are stopping them from blood donation
- About those willing donors, who have not donated yet for the reason that nobody has approached them to do so, should be motivated to take the initiative and to approach such blood banks or associations as voluntary donors
- Formation of more such voluntary associations such as BDA should be encouraged in all medical colleges as well as nonmedical throughout the state.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | | |
| 1. | Dhingra-Kumar N, Sikka M, Madan N, Sood SK. Evaluation of awareness and utilization of an autologous blood transfusion programme. Transfus Med 1997;7:197-202.  |
| 2. | Javadzadeh Shahshahani H, Yavari MT, Attar M, Ahmadiyeh MH. Knowledge, attitude and practice study about blood donation in the urban population of Yazd, Iran, 2004. Transfus Med 2006;16:403-9. |
| 3. | Javadzadeh SH. Knowledge, attitude and practice of women about blood donation. Sci J Iran Blood Transfus Org 2006;3:213-9. |
| 4. | |
| 5. | van den Burg PJ, Vrielink H, Reesink HW. Donor selection: The exclusion of high risk donors? Vox Sang 1998;74 Suppl 2:499-502. |
| 6. | Trief D. Models of altruism as applied to human blood and organ donation. Penn Sci 2004;2:2. |
| 7. | Contreras M. Is the unpaid/paid donation debate for better or for worse? – Advantages of unpaid donations. Blood Coagul Fibrinolysis 1994;5 Suppl 4:S27-8. |
| 8. | Alan B, Duncan C. Quantitative Data Analysis with IBM SPSS 17, 18 and 19: A Guide for Social Scientists. New York: Routledge; 2011. |
| 9. | Wiwanitkit V. Knowledge about blood donation among a sample of Thai university students. Vox Sang 2002;83:97-9. |
| 10. | Hosain GM, Anisuzzaman M, Begum A. Knowledge and attitude towards voluntary blood donation among Dhaka university students in Bangladesh. East Afr Med J 1997;74:549-53. |
| 11. | Giri PA, Phalke DB. Knowledge and attitude about blood donation amongst undergraduate students of Pravara institute of medical sciences deemed university of central India. Ann Trop Med Public Health 2012;5:569-73. [Full text] |
| 12. | Rajagopalan M, Pulimood R. Attitudes of medical and nursing students towards blood donation. Natl Med J India 1998;11:12-3. |
| 13. | Manikandan S, Srikumar R, Ruvanthika PN. A study on knowledge, attitude and practice on blood donation among health professional students in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, South India. Int J Sci Res Public 2013;3:1-4. |
| 14. | 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. [Full text] |
| 15. | Kowsalya V, Vijayakumar R, Chidambaram R, Srikumar R, Reddy EP, Latha S, et al. Astudy on knowledge, attitude and practice regarding voluntary blood donation among medical students in Puducherry, India. Pak J Biol Sci 2013;16:439-42. |
| 16. | Fernández Montoya A, de Dios Luna del Castillo J, López Berrio A, Rodríguez Fernández A. Attitudes, beliefs, and motivations in blood donors and non-donors. Sangre (Barc) 1996;41:427-40. |
| 17. | Bani M, Giussani B. Gender differences in giving blood: A review of the literature. Blood Transfus 2010;8:278-87. |
| 18. | France CR, France JL, Wissel ME, Kowalsky JM, Bolinger EM, Huckins JL, et al. Enhancing blood donation intentions using multimedia donor education materials. Transfusion 2011;51:1796-801. |
| 19. | World Health Organization. Global Database on Blood Safety, 2011 Pakistan Red Crescent Society. World Health Organization; 2011. |
| 20. | Zaller N, Nelson KE, Ness P, Wen G, Bai X, Shan H. Knowledge, attitude and practice survey regarding blood donation in a Northwestern Chinese city. Transfus Med 2005;15:277-86. |
| 21. | Alam M, Masalmeh Bel D. Knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding blood donation among the Saudi population. Saudi Med J 2004;25:318-21. |
| 22. | Anwer MO, Ul Fawwad SH, Anwer S, Ali A. Attitude toward blood donation among medical and nonmedical students across Karachi. Asian J Transfus Sci 2016;10:113-7. [ PUBMED] [Full text] |
[Table 1], [Table 2]
|
Search Pubmed for