Knowledge, attitude and practice regarding blood donation among medical students of Tamil Nadu- a cross sectional study

Authors

  • Venkatesh Govindasamy Department of Community Medicine, Government Thiruvannamalai Medical College and Hospital, Tamil Nadu, India
  • Devendiran Sivasankaran Department of Community Medicine, Government Thiruvannamalai Medical College and Hospital, Tamil Nadu, India
  • Vaithiyanathan Purushothaman Department of Community Medicine, Government Thiruvannamalai Medical College and Hospital, Tamil Nadu, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20194532

Keywords:

Blood donation, Medical students, Knowledge, Attitude

Abstract

Background: Blood can save millions of life. Blood transfusion is one of the most crucial interventions in conditions like trauma, childbirth, and various other medical and surgical life-saving procedures. In spite of extensive efforts and a number of blood donation programs being organized worldwide, the availability of blood remains too short to meet the demand. Students of health education form a potential source of eligible regular voluntary donors and also play a cruel role in motivating potential donors from the general population.

Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among the medical students and interns of Government Thiruvannamalai Medical College in July 2018. Universal sampling was done for this study. A pretested structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data entry and analysis was done using SPSS software version 21.

Results: Out of 460 students, 53.3% have adequate knowledge about blood donation. 57.8% of students have positive attitude towards blood donation. Only 31.4% of them have donated blood before and anaemia was found to be the main reason among non-donors for not having donated blood.

Conclusions: More than half of the students have adequate knowledge and positive attitude towards blood donation. Less than one-third have donated blood. It is recommended that there is a need to adopt strategies to sensitize and motivate them towards voluntary blood donation early in their medical career.

References

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Published

2019-09-26

How to Cite

Govindasamy, V., Sivasankaran, D., & Purushothaman, V. (2019). Knowledge, attitude and practice regarding blood donation among medical students of Tamil Nadu- a cross sectional study. International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 6(10), 4583–4587. https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20194532

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Original Research Articles