Donor’s perspectives on blood donation and challenges of National Blood Center, Yangon, during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Background: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is causing major disruption at all levels of healthcare services, including blood bank services globally. The donors’ knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors regarding blood donation in Myanmar are needed to be considered. Hence, we studied the perspectives of blood donors on their donation and the challenges faced by the National Blood Centre, Yangon (NBC), during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We conducted the cross-sectional descriptive study using mixed methods among blood donors aged 20 years and above for quantitative approach and among three purposively selected blood bank experts for key informant interviews of qualitative portion. Results: Of the 240 donors, the mean age was 36.41±10.83 years, and the male-to-female ratio was 1.24:1. Overall, regarding blood donation, 57.1% had favorable knowledge, 59.2% had favorable attitude, and 31.3% had regular voluntary practice. The higher-income donors had more favorable knowledge (p=0.013). Male donors (p=0.037), donors aged 50 years and above (p<0.001), and who with favorable knowledge (p=0.002) had regular voluntary practice. The more knowledge and positive attitude the donors had, the more times they donated blood. Thematic analysis identified five key themes and during pandemic, NBC encountered reduced blood supply and demand, communication problems with donors, human resources shortage, poor adherence to safety precautions of COVID-19 among donors and staff, and difficulty in arrangement of continuous consumable supply and maintenance as main challenges. Conclusions: Policymakers and medical directors should have proper plans and policies to raise awareness, mobilize regular voluntary donors, especially youth and repeated donors, and recruit potential donors.