Umbilical cord blood “How long does it last? Does it ever expire?”: A study on general population’s awareness

Abstract

Introduction: A cord blood bank is a facility which stores umbilical cord blood (UCB) for future use in treating diseases of the blood and immune systems. Butit is not known how long cord blood can be stored and its cells remain viable. So, it is a big problem for the general public to go for storage and at the same time about the affordability of the unknown longevity and viability of UCB. In the present study, we tried to know the awareness among general public about the UCB and its longevity, viability and their affordability. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in a tertiary level teaching hospitals NRI medical college and general hospital over one year period from Nov 2016 to Oct 2017, with ethical committee approval. Our study is a cross sectional study consist of 802 general public, based on questionnaire on 20 questions such as Age, sex, education, socio economic status, what is cord blood, its use, cost, longevity. Result: During our study period, out of 802 general public, 513(64%) were aware of UCBB (408 educated, 105 uneducated) and 289(36%) are unaware. 284 out of 449 (56%) people had knowledge about the cord blood storage longevity, which was more than 20 years and the lowest 5 to 10 years by only 30 aware people of 65(08%). Conclusion: The knowledge about, how long to store and its cost in uneducated people is poor. So local and central bodies related to health should give recommendation and guideline related to storage and usefulness to all people and health professional at grass root level. Keywords: Umbilical cord blood (UCB), Hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs), Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs).