Knowledge and attitudes towards blood donation among students of the Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences at King Abdulaziz University

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to assess knowledge about and attitude towards blood donation among students at the Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences at King Abdulaziz University. In Saudi Arabia, the shortage of blood donors is a major challenge in blood banks. This could be due to low levels of community knowledge and unfavorable attitudes. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted between November 2017 and July 2018. A total of 350 students were randomly selected and interviewed using a well-structured and validated electronic self-administered questionnaire. Results: Among the 350 students, the mean age was 22; 345 (98.5%) of the students were Saudi Arabian. Ninety-three (26.6%) of the students had a prior experience of blood donation, while 257 (73.4%) had never donated blood before. Three-hundred-forty-nine (99.8%) of the students had a good attitude towards blood donation. The majority (86.9%) of the students had good knowledge about blood donation, while 13.1% had poor knowledge. Of the 350 students, 240 (68.6%) strongly agreed that increasing blood donation awareness could increase blood donations. Thirty-five (15.1%) of students strongly agreed that donating blood causes anemia and 54 (15.4%) strongly agreed with the statement: “Blood donation can transmit diseases”. Conclusion: These results reflect a strong positive knowledge about and attitude towards blood donations. The negative responses from students provide a platform for a future campaign that should recruit donors and motivate them to donate blood.

Blood donation knowledge and attitude in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

“…However, this was contrary to findings by researchers from King Abdullah International Medical Research Centre (KAIMRC), which demonstrated that males, who answered a short survey in shopping malls in the city of Riyadh, were 50% more than female participants (Abolfotouh et al, 2014). This is also similar to the Saudi study conducted on students in the collage of applied medical sciences (Felimban et al, 2021). All these observations are more reflective of the overall population, as the demographic and attitudes of both males and females in the public arena differ compared to the privacy of their own homes, which is where Saudi females would more likely participate in a survey/questionnaire.…”

The blood donation: Knowledge and attitude of female students at the faculty of applied medical sciences, Al Baha University, Saudi Arabia

“…From the researchers' point of view, thisage could cause a fear of needles as the main reason that the students thought caused a low rate of donating blood. These results are similarto the findings of a study conducted by Raed et al, (2021) who mentioned that the mean age of the students was around 22 years in the study conducted at King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia (Felimban et al, 2019). The present study showed that more than three fifths of the studied female students' preferred receiving information regarding blood donation from doctors.…”

“…Concerning knowledge, it was found that half of the female students at FAMS know safe blood donation and all of them mentioned appropriately the diseases could be transmitted through the blood donation. These results are similar with the study conducted by Raed et al, (2021) who mentioned that students responded yes to a question asking about the relationship between blood donations and transmitting diseases (Felimban et al, 2019). Similarly, Jacobs and Berege, (2015) found in Tanzania and areas where HIV is a common problem, that people are, typically discouraged from donating blood because they afraid getting diseases to the donors.…”

Measuring medical student’s awareness about blood group types and blood transfusion

“…Fear, misunderstanding of qualifications, and lack of outreach for donor programs are the most significant obstacles to blood donation. Studies performed in the past have shown that within societies today, myths including the risk of blood-borne infections as well as anemia are contributing to low levels of blood donors [8,9] .…”

“…Still, because of unemployment and an absence of information on the topic, this critical mechanism receives inadequate attention. However, the belief that giving induces anemia or could carry illness remains in individual citizens' minds [8,9] . Owing to the shortage of modern technology for motivating voluntary blood donation, students have no real experience with it.…”