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Background.
Blood and its products is one of the core products in medicine/health and functional, blood transfusion services contribute to survival and health of the population. It is required in emergency situations like trauma or complications of childbirth and in routine care like in childhood conditions, or in cancer management. Blood transfusion services depend on availability of voluntary, non-remunerated blood donors. Developed countries have succeeded in having adequate amount of required blood by using voluntary non-remunerated blood donors. Developing countries like Tanzania are still struggling to meet the required amount of blood, collecting only 30% of the target. Understanding awareness and knowledge of blood donation among potential blood donor population s like young people and associated attitudes and practice is important.
Objectives
The present study aimed to determine awareness, level of knowledge, and attitude towards voluntary blood donation among university students in Kilimanjaro region. It also assess prevalence of blood donation and associated factors in this group.
Methodology.
This was a cross sectional study that was conducted in Kilimanjaro region Northern Tanzania at four universities: Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College, Moshi University College of Cooperative and Business Services, Stefano Moshi Memorial University College and Mwenge University College of Education. Self administered questionnaires were used to collect information from the consenting participants. Data was entered, cleaned and analyzed using Social Package for Social Science.
Results
A total of 422 participants were enrolled. Their mean age was 24.2 (SD 3.57) years. Of the 422, 30% have ever donated blood and 55% of those who had ever donated were repeated blood donors. Awareness on blood donation was high with 93% of the students reported to have heard about blood donation and 85% knew a person who had donated blood. Knowledge that HIV is
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routinely screened before blood donation was high (92%), so was knowledge on suitable age and weight of blood donation. Knowledge was low on amount (37%) and frequency of blood donation per year (61%). Majority of the participants (93%) had positive attitude towards blood donation and 88% were willing to donate in future. Factors that were significantly associated with ever donating blood were: males, being a KCMUCo student, knowing a person who had ever donated blood, knowledge on amount and frequency of blood donation, positive attitude on voluntary blood donation (VBD), willing to donate to a relative and did not expect reward for blood donation.
Conclusion
The findings of this study revealed that only 30% of the University students had ever donated blood. Level of education on blood donation was low despite of the fact that majority of them ever heard and saw advertisement of blood donation, and intended to donate blood in the future. Therefore several measures should be taken to educate and encourage people to donate more and more blood voluntarily and regularly so as to achieve WHO goal of 100% voluntary blood donation by 2020. |
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