Knowledge, attitude and practice of voluntary blood donation among family donors in the National Blood Transfusion Center

Abstract

Background: blood donation by human still the only source of blood and blood components. Generally, donors classified into voluntary blood donor, family (or replacement) blood donor and paid blood donors. The safest donors found among people who donate their blood is the voluntarily blood donation. The study of attitude, beliefs, and level of knowledge associated with blood donation may enhance the recruitment of donors to blood donation. Aim of the study: assessment of knowledge, attitude and, practice of voluntary blood donation among family donors in the National Center for Blood Transfusion (NCBT) to identify and recruit potential voluntary blood donors. Materials and methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out at the National center for Blood Transfusion-Baghdad in the period between October 2022 and February 2023. A questionnaire form was prepared for the assessment. A Total of 100 family (replacement) blood donor were included in the study. Results: The median of age was 33 (mean 34 +SD 8.9) years with range of 20-53 years age. All donors were males. The largest group of the responders (41%) is of secondary level of education. Seventy (70%) donors know their blood group. Sixty-six (66%) donors know the most common blood group in the world. Fifty-nine (59%) donors do not know the volume of blood that collected during each donation; and only 30 (30%) donors know the volume of the donated blood. Sixty-four (64%) donors know the correct duration of donation process. Forty-seven (47%) donors think that the individual can donate blood 2 times in the year; 17 (17%) stated 3 and 21(21%) stated more than 3 donations. Forty five (45%) donors stated that viral diseases can transmitted by blood transfusion, 11(11%) donors believe that cancer transmitted by transfusion , 15(15%) donors stated that chronic disorder can be transmitted by transfusion, while 29(29%) don’t know the diseases that can be transmitted by blood transfusion. Attitude towards Blood Donation; 84(84%) donors stated that donation has no harmful effect on the donor, and 75(75%) donors think that blood donation is beneficial for heath. Fifty-six (56%) donors practice voluntarily donation previously while 44(44%) donors practice replacement donation only. Conclusions there is good attitude toward blood donation and good practice of voluntary non-remunerated donation among family blood donors , in contrary there is a defect in the information and knowledge regarding the volume of donated blood , frequency of donations and the disorders that can transmitted by blood transfusion.