Knowledge and Attitude regarding Blood Donation Among Adults

INTRODUCTION

Blood is an important resource, both for planned treatments and urgent interventions. It can help patients suffering from life-threatening conditions live longer and with a higher quality of life, and supports complex medical and surgical procedures. Blood is also vital for treating the wounded during emergencies of all kinds (natural disasters, accidents, armed conflicts, etc.) and has an essential, life-saving role in maternal and perinatal care¹ .

Blood is an invaluable, life-sustaining fluid. Without a sufficient amount of blood, the cells of the human body could not receive adequate oxygen and nutrients they need to survive. Large volume of blood could be lost as a result of numerously varying serious conditions such as road traffic accidents, obstetric and gynecological hemorrhages, surgery, trauma, chemotherapy, and long-term therapies as well as anemia of medical or hematologic conditions or cancer. Because of these blood transfusion is considered as an integral and essential element of a health care system. Besides, blood transfusion is one part of complex medical and surgical interventions which improves the life expectancy and life quality in patients with a variety of acute and chronic conditions. Therefore, blood transfusion is now considered as an indispensable component of medical management of many diseases².

The theme of World Blood Donor Day 2018 is “Blood connect us all”. In the past years, India has seen an improvement in blood collection (from 9.8 million units in 2012 to 11.45 million in 2017- 2018). Despite this India stares at blood shortage of a whooping 195 million units. Several myths keep people from not coming forward³ .

The slogan of 2019 campaign is ‘’Safe blood for all’’. This theme focuses on universal access to safe blood transfusions in health care so as to achieve universal health coverage. The theme also encourages more people to donate blood regularly to meet the needs of patients. Blood is the most precious gift that anyone can give to another person, which is “the gift of life.” Around 112.5 million units of donated blood are collected globally every year, however, many patients requiring transfusion do not have timely access to safe blood and blood products. Voluntary unpaid blood donors are the foundation of a safe, sustainable blood supply and account for 100% of blood supplies in 62 countries.³

In 2016-2017, 11.09 million units of blood was collected across the country, about 2% more than the collection in 2015-16. Though the collection has increased by about 12% between 2013-14 and 2016-17, it is still short of the requirement, as per the WHO norm of 1% of the population, by 15%. While voluntary blood donation & awareness have improved over the years, the situation in some states is alarming⁴ . 

World Health Organization (WHO) recommends countries to focus on young people to achieve 100% non remunerated voluntary blood donation by 2020. It also recommends that all countries should be self-sufficient in all blood products and that all blood donations should be voluntary, anonymous, and non remunerated. According to its 2011 report, 107 million blood donations are collected globally; approximately half of these are collected in the high-income countries, home to 15% of the world’s population. Blood donation rate in high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries was 39.2, 12.5, and 4.0 donations per 1000 population, respectively. In low-income countries, up to 65% of blood transfusions are given to children under five years of age, whereas, in highincome countries, the most frequently transfused patient group is over 65 years of age, accounting for up to 76% of all transfusions. Compared to the 2004 report, 7.70 million blood donations incensement was noticed from voluntary unpaid donors in 2011. However, majority of countries still collect more than 50% of their blood supply from replacement or paid donors.⁵

A Cross sectional study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice regarding blood donation among individuals aged 18-60 years in an urban community of Chennai. 300 samples were recruited by random sampling .Semistructured, questionnaire was employed as data collection tool. Among the study subjects, 45% of them had good knowledge on blood donation, 44% of them had a correct attitude towards blood donation and 33.3% of them had good practices towards blood donation. The study concluded an average prevalence of knowledge and attitude among the study participants whereas when it comes to practice it was found to be less⁶.

Objectives

1. To assess the knowledge and attitude regarding blood donation among adults.

2. To find out the correlation between knowledge and attitude among adults.

3. To find out the association between knowledge and attitude with selected demographic variables.

METHODOLOGY

Non- experimental descriptive survey research design was adopted for the present study. A total of 500 adults who were in the age group of 20-60 years were selected using convenience sampling technique. Data collection tool consisted of three sections. Section-I consisted of items on demographic variables of adults. Section-II consisted of structured knowledge questionnaire on blood donation to assess knowledge and section-III was Five point Likert scale to assess the attitude of adults regarding blood donation. The study was conducted in Hongasandra, Bangalore. Formal permission and was obtained from the institutional higher authority. Informed consent was obtained from the adults. The data was collected through self-structured questionnaire method. The collected data were analyzed and organized according to objectives of the study using descriptive and inferential statistics. 

RESULTS

I. Description of selected variables of adults.

In the present study, majority 38.6% were in the age group of 41-50 years.58.2% were females. Majority 49% were Hindu. 42% were graduates. 59.2% were private employees. Majority 28% had income less than Rs.10, 000 and highest number 74.4% have not donated blood.

II. Distribution of adults by their knowledge level regarding blood donation

Majority 42.4% adults had moderate knowledge, 31.2% had inadequate knowledge and 26.4% had adequate knowledge regarding blood donation. 

III. Distribution of adults according to their level of attitude regarding blood donation

Majority 58.4% had moderately favorable attitude, 40.8% had favorable attitude and 0.8% had unfavorable attitude regarding blood donation.

IV. Correlation between level of knowledge and attitude of adults regarding blood donation

A moderately positive correlation was found between knowledge and attitude in adults regarding blood donation where mean score of knowledge and attitude was (10.24±3.23) and (54.89 ±7.09) respectively with (r value =0.583*,p value=0.036).

V. Association between level of knowledge and attitude with selected variables

The findings of the study revealed that there was a highly significant association between knowledge with age, religion, education,occupation, income and donation of blood at the level of p<0.05 and there was no significant found between knowledge and gender. 

The findings of the study revealed that there was a significant association between attitude withreligion, education, occupation and donation of blood at the level of p<0.05 and other variables like age, gender and income was not found to besignificant.

DISCUSSION

The present study revealed that 42.4% had moderate knowledge and there was a significant association between attitude with education. This is supported by Anand N, Inban P who conducted a study on knowledge, attitude and practiceregarding blood donation among individuals aged 18-60 years in an urban community of Chennai which concluded that there is an average prevalence of knowledge and a significant relationship between attitude and education6 . The finding is logical since education would increase awareness about all possible information related to blood donation.

Present study findings revealed that that there was a significant association between age, religion, education, occupation, income with knowledge. This is supported by Santhanalakshmi who conducted a study on structured teaching programme on knowledge and attitude regarding blood donation among students in selected arts college. Findings showed a significant association between demographic variables and knowledge.⁷

The present revealed a moderately positive correlation was found between knowledge and attitude in adults regarding blood donation, there were no previous study wherein specifically knowledge and attitude among adults was explored, but similar observation was noted on medical students in a study conducted by Prashant Verma et al who reported Attitude has a positive statistically significant correlation with the increase in knowledge and vice versa. On the other hand, Increase in attitude shows a negative statistically significant correlation with practice and vice versa of medical students.⁸ 

Understanding the factors contributing to knowledge and attitudes associated with blood donation and transfusion is very important. Blood transfusion is a fundamental and essential part of any health care service for the optimum management of emergency medical situations. Blood donor availability often becomes difficult in an emergency. Adults with knowledge and positive attitude could volunteer for this life saving cause.

CONCLUSON

The present study shows that the adults had moderate knowledge and a moderately favorable attitude regarding blood donation. The study findings showed that there is a moderately positive correlation between knowledge and attitude, there was a highly significant association between knowledge with age, religion, education, occupation, income and donation of blood and that there was a significant association between attitude with religion, education, occupation and donation of blood. There should be a regularly scheduled awareness creation among the public to gain an in depth insight about the importance of blood donation to save human lives.