A Descriptive Study to assess the knowledge and Attitude regarding the Blood Donation among students of LCIT College, Bhandu

Ganeshlal Patidar¹, Avani Suthar², Khushbu Ravat²

¹Asst professor, Joitiba College of Nursing, Bhandu, Gujarat, India

²4^thyear B.Sc. Nursing, Joitiba college of Nursing, Bhandu, Gujarat, India

*Corresponding Author E-mail:

ABSTRACT:

Introduction: Blood donation refers to the process of collecting, testing, preparing and storing the blood and blood components. Donors are most commonly unpaid volunteers, but they may also be paid by commercial enterprises. Objectives: To assess knowledge regarding blood donation among college students. To assess the attitude regarding the blood donation among college student. To find the association between knowledge and attitude of LCIT students regarding blood donation with their demographic variables. Method: Quantitative approach using simple data collection was adopted for this study in order to accomplish the objectives. This research deals with the question regarding blood donation. The primary aim of this research approach is to determine the knowledge and attitude of students regarding blood donation. Hence quantitative research approach was consider most appropriate and was adopted for the study. Data was collected using a self structured questionnaire and likert’s scale analysis. Result: Section I: Finding from section A shows that all students are of age group of 21-24 years, the majority if participated students are male (90.5), all the students are undergraduate, majority of students 56.5 percent were living in rural area, majority of students 53% are living in the joint family, most of the students are Hindus (90.5%), 37.5% students have B^+veblood groups and 74.5% students have not donated blood ever. Section II: In the present study, the knowledge regarding blood donation was assessed by dividing the total score into good (>60%) average (40-60%) and poor (<40%). Almost half of the students (56%) had average knowledge regarding blood donation, while the students who gained good knowledge were 32 percent and students with poor knowledge score were 12 percent. The most of the students (92.5%) had positive attitude towards the blood donation while 7.5% students had turned their face away from the blood donation. Section III: The Chi-square value and P value show that there no significance association between knowledge and demographic variables. The calculated chi-square values were less than the table value at the 0.05 level of significance. Section IV: The Chi-square value and table value show that there no significance association between attitude and demographic variables. The calculated chi-square values were less than the table value at the 0.05 level of significance. Conclusion: In the present study majority of students had average knowledge and most of the students had positive attitude towards blood donation.

KEYWORDS: Knowledge, Attitude, Blood donation, Students.

BACKGROUND:

Blood is that magic portion which gives life to another person. Though we have tremendous discoveries and inventions in science, we are not yet able to make the magic portion called Blood. Human blood has no substitute. Requirement of safe blood is increasing and regular voluntary blood donations are vital for blood transfusion service^1.

Normal amount of blood in the human body is around 76ml/kg weight in case of male and 66 ml/kg weight in case of female. Humans required 50 ml/kg body weight of blood for daily work. Hence 26 ml/kg body weight of blood in male and 16 ml/kg body weight of blood in female is excess. A healthy person can easily give 8 ml/kg body weight in blood donation.

For donation minimum weight is 45 kg.²A 45 kg person can give 45 x 8 ml=360 ml blood which is in excess for such a person. Minimum blood taken in a donation is 350 ml in India. An average human has 5 liter of blood; average blood volume is 4-6 liter. Blood is a type of liquid connective tissue. The various components of blood are red blood cells (erythrocytes), white blood cells (leukocytes), plasma and platelets (thrombocytes). The major function of blood is transport. There are about 1 million red blood cells in two to three drops of blood. For every 600 red blood cells, there are about 40 platelets and one white cell.³

Safe blood donor is donates the blood voluntarily, without knowing the beneficiary, without any expectation and without being under pressure of a direct or indirect nature. They are from low risk population and are the safer from paid, forced or replacement blood donor from family. Despite this notion, paid/family/ replacement donors still providemore than 45% of the blood donated in India.⁴

According to World Health Organization report (2012), only nine million units collected annually, while the need is for twelve million units. Delhi NCR alone faces the shortage of 100000 units per year. Blood is perceived as most precious gift under certain situation and therefore blood donation is the act of utmost humanity. However, too many people are unaware of blood donation procedure and therefore, cannot help others even if they can. This indicates that large international organization should mainly emphasize upon the people to facilitate their communities as donors.⁵

METHODOLOGY:

The research design employed for this study is a descriptive approach. This study was conducted at LCIT College, Bhandu. The sample size is 200 students and sampling technique is non-probability sampling technique. A structured knowledge questionnaire and a structured attitude scale were used as data collection tool. Section A: Socio demographic variables. This part consist of variables such as age, sex, gender, type of family, religion, residency, qualification, blood group, membership in voluntary organization and history of blood donation. Section B: A structured knowledge questionnaire on blood donation. It consists of 30 multiple choice questions related to blood and blood donation which has four alternative responses. A score value of (1) is allotted to each correct response. Score 0 for wrong answer. Section C is structured attitude scale on attitude.

RESULT:

Section I:

Finding revealed that all the students who participated in the study age group of 21-24(100 %), and age group 17-20(0%), age group 25-28(0%). The majority if participated students are male (90.5), female students are 9.5%. The data clearly depicts that majority of students 56.5 percent were living in rural area and 43.5 percent in urban area. And most of students are living in the joint family (53%), while students living in nuclear % extended family are of 45% & 2%. Majority of the undergraduate students (90.5%) studied were Hindus, 8.5% Muslims and Christians constituted only 1%.Majority of the students (36%) in the study group were B^+ve (37.5), followed by 28 percent O^+ve, 23.5 percent A^+ve and 5.5 percent AB^+ve. A^-ve was the rarest group in the study(0.5%) and B^-ve, O^-ve and AB^-ve were 2.5, 1.5, and 1 percent respectively.Nearly 3/4th (77%) of the students did not have membership in any voluntary organizations.

Only 18.5% were in of the students NSS, 0.5% were members in the NCC, Red ribbon, Club 25. And 3% of students had membership in other organization.74.5 percent students had not donated blood, 25.5 percent students had donated the blood.

Section II:

Fig 1-Distribution of students according to knowledge regarding blood donation

The data in the figure 1 shows that the maximum number of participants had average knowledge (56%), 32% had good knowledge and 12% had poor knowledge regarding blood donation.

Section III

Fig 2-Distribution of students according to overall attitude

The data in the figure 2 shows that maximum students (92.5%) had positive attitude towards blood donation while 7.5% had negative attitude towards blood donation.

Section IV:

In the present data chi-square test used to associate the level of knowledge and selected demographic variables. The Chi-square value shows that there no significance association between knowledge and demographic variables with exception of gender. The calculated chi-square values were less than the table value at the 0.05 level of significance.

Chi-square test used to associate the level of attitude and selected demographic variables. The Chi-square value shows that there no significance association between attitude and demographic variables with exception of residence, religion and blood group. The calculated chi-square values were less than the table value at the 0.05 level of significance.

DISCUSSION:

In the present study 200 samples was collected from the LCIT, College. The data was collected by the structured knowledge questionnaire and structure attitude questionnaire by non-probability convenient sampling technique. Almost half of the students (56%) had average knowledge regarding blood donation, while the students who gained good knowledge were 32% and students with poor knowledge score were 12%. The most of the students (92.5%) had positive attitude towards the blood donation while 7.5% students had turned their face away from the blood donation. There is no significant association between knowledge and demographic variables as well as there is no significant association between attitude and demographic variables.

CONCLUSION:

The overall experience of conducting this study was satisfying one, as there was good co-operation from samples. The study was a new learning experience for the Researcher. The finding of the study revealed that the majority of students had average knowledge regarding blood donation. Also majority of the students had positive attitude towards blood donation.

REFERENCE:

1. Samlee Pianbangchang. Frequently asked questions on blood donation. New Delhi. WHO publication. Regional office for south East Asia; 2011.

2. Haj IZA. Blood and its function. Available from: http://www.slideshare.net/Zahra_Haj_Issa/blood-its-functions?related=1

3. Waugh A, Grant A. Anatomy and physiology in health and illness. 9^thEdn. Chapter 60, Chapter 4, The blood. Churchill Livingstone: Elsevier, 2005:57-65

4. Goncalez TT, SabincoEc, Chen Set al. Knowledge, attitude and motivation among blood donors in Sao Paul, Brazil. AIDS Behav2008; 12(4 suppl): 39-47

5. Javadzadeh Shahshahani H, Yavari MT, Attar M et al. Knowledge, attitude and practice study about blood donation in the urban population of Yazd, Iran, 2004. Transfusion Medicine Dec 2006; 16(6) 403-409