Knowledge and practices of blood donation among the undergraduate students of district Una, Himachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

Introduction

Blood is the major vital component of the human body and most donated

tissue in medical practice. It is a veritable tool in many live-saving situations

when used judiciously. In spite of the rapid and remarkable conquest and

breakthrough of medical science today, there is still no ideal substitute.

Youths are the major source of blood donation and college students form a

large and important group of population eligible for blood donation.

Objective

To assess the knowledge and practices of blood donation among

undergraduate students of district Una, Himachal Pradesh.

Methodology

A cross sectional study was carried out in July-August 2015 among 277

undergraduate students of district Una, Himachal Pradesh. Convenient

sampling with semi structured questionnaire using self-administered

technique was used for collecting data. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20.

Results

Out of 277 students, 165 were male and 112 female. More than half of respondents, 142(51.3%) had a poor

level of knowledge. Only 48(17.3%) of the total respondents had donated blood and 32(19.4%) of the boys and

16(14.3%) of the girls had donated blood. Majority of the donors, 41(85.4%) had donated blood only once in

their life. A highly significant statistical association was found between gender and knowledge regarding

amount of blood in body (p-value=0.001). Stream of education was found to be highly significantly associated

with knowledge about own blood group (p-value=0.003), knowledge regarding number of constituents

present in blood (p-value=0.001) and knowledge regarding blood donation to HIV/AIDS affected person (p

value=<0.001). A highly significant association was found between practices of blood donation and age group

(p-value=0.002).

Conclusion

Good knowledge and practice of blood donation among undergraduate students were found quite low. There

should be regular blood donation campaign in colleges and students should be aware regarding the benefits

and need of blood donation.