Knowledge, awareness and attitude about blood donation among medical students

Introduction: Donated blood can be lifesaving for persons who have lost large amounts of blood because of serious accidents, new medical and surgical procedures, civil conflicts, and military wars as well as for patients who have become severely anemic because of serious hematological diseases or treatments such as cancer therapy. Therefore, availability of blood is an important concern to the society. Encouraging and engaging youth in these kinds of voluntary activities will increase the supply of blood. The aim of the study was to compare the reasons for blood donation and knowledge about blood donation among medical students. Materials and methods: This study was done at Government Medical College, Nizamabad, Telangana state between April 2017 and March 2018. Only MBBS students who were willing to be a part of study were included- total students participated were 350. 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. Results: A total of 350 students were considered for this study. Total male participants were 216 which constituted 61.7% and total female participants were 134 which constituted 38.3%. Age group included in this study was 18 years to 24 years. Majority of the students participated in this study were in the 3rd and 4th year of MBBS. Out of the 350 students, only 69 students were new to blood donation/ never donated blood in their life time due to various reasons, 46 participants donated only once, 77 participants donated twice, 75 participants donated thrice, 48 participants donated four times, 21 participants donated blood 5 times and only 14 participants donated blood more than 5 times. Conclusion: A considerable percentage of students have low awareness of and negative attitude towards blood donation. The low awareness and negative attitude towards blood donation can be considered as important factors contributing to the lack of interest and poor participation in blood donation among this population.