Knowledge, attitude, and blood donation practices among medical students of Taif University, Saudi Arabia Rizwan FA, Al-Amri RO, Al-Harthi AA, Al-Otaibi NA, Al-Otaibi RF

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Year : 2022 | Volume : 11 | Issue : 1 | Page : 68-73

Knowledge, attitude, and blood donation practices among medical students of Taif University, Saudi Arabia

Farzana Arain Rizwan¹, Razan Othman Al-Amri², Azzah A Al-Harthi², Nada A Al-Otaibi², Rawa F Al-Otaibi²
¹ Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, College of Medicine, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia
² Medical Student, College of Medicine, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia

Date of Submission	27-May-2021
Date of Decision	28-Jan-2022
Date of Acceptance	09-Feb-2022
Date of Web Publication	2-May-2022

Correspondence Address:
Razan Othman Al-Amri
Students at Medical College, Taif University, Musala Al Eid Street, Taif
Saudi Arabia

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None

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DOI: 10.4103/sjhs.sjhs_77_21

Abstract

Background: People's need for blood increases every day. That is very important to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) toward blood donation especially on medical students. Objectives: The objective of the study is to determine the KAPs about blood donation among medical students of Taif university. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional study with a sample of 300 medical students of Taif university in Taif Saudi Arabia conducted from September 29, 2020, to April 29, 2021. A pre–designed questionnaire was used to collect data about their KAP toward blood donation. Results: The analysis of 318 medical students showed that 33.0% had a good, 30.5% had average, and 36.5% had poor knowledge related to blood donation. Of them, 28.3% had good attitude, 53.5% had fair, and 18.2% had poor attitudes toward blood donation. The scores of practices were also classified into “Good,” “Fair” and “Poor” based on the percentage obtained > 75%, 60%–75%, <60%, respectively. About 17% (17.3%) of students had demonstrated good practices, whereas most students (76.7%) showed poor practices. There was no statistically significant difference observed between female and male students except in 1^st medical students the attitude was good in males (30.1%) compared to females (12%). Relationship of knowledge with practices found about 49.1% of the students who had demonstrated good knowledge showed good practices. Conclusion: About one-third of the participants had shown good knowledge about blood donation and the majority had a positive attitude toward future donation.

Keywords: Blood, donation, knowledge, medical, practice, Taif

How to cite this article:
Rizwan FA, Al-Amri RO, Al-Harthi AA, Al-Otaibi NA, Al-Otaibi RF. Knowledge, attitude, and blood donation practices among medical students of Taif University, Saudi Arabia. Saudi J Health Sci 2022;11:68-73

How to cite this URL:
Rizwan FA, Al-Amri RO, Al-Harthi AA, Al-Otaibi NA, Al-Otaibi RF. Knowledge, attitude, and blood donation practices among medical students of Taif University, Saudi Arabia. Saudi J Health Sci [serial online] 2022 [cited 2023 Jun 4];11:68-73. Available from: https://www.saudijhealthsci.org/text.asp?2022/11/1/68/344492

Introduction

Blood transfusion is very important in the concept of health care, as it protects the lives of millions of people annually all over the world.^[1] Blood transfusion allows for many challenging operations that improve efficiency and average life span in those patients who suffer from many serious chronic conditions and acute illnesses.^[2] The people's need for blood is increasing daily due to increasing number of population and advancements in medical sciences.^[3]

Donating blood is viewed as a gesture of goodwill that is frequently performed as a voluntary service with no expectation of remuneration.^[4] The World Health Organization has urged on communities to improve their ability to donate blood voluntarily and without pay, recommending that every country's population donation rate be at least 1%.^[5]

According to a study conducted in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad and published in 2018, 89.8% of female participants had never donated blood and only 0.4% had donated blood on a regular basis.^[6] In Ethiopia, a study conducted in 2018 showed that most of the participants had adequate knowledge about and positive attitude regarding blood donation.^[7]

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), a study done in 2004 found that blood donors had more knowledge bout blood donation when compared to nondonors.^[8] A study was conducted out in between 2014 and 2015 found that most of respondents had sufficient knowledge about blood donation. Of them, 99.2% believed that blood donation is important for the community, and 30.1% had donated blood previously, according to the study.^[9]

A study was done in Hail region in 2017 to investigate the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) about blood donation among undergraduate medical students. The study discovered that awareness was low due to a lack of knowledge about blood donation and that only a few of them had donated blood; however, medical students had a positive attitude toward blood donation.^[10] Another survey conducted in the same region in 2018 indicated that 75% of people were aware that viruses can be spread by blood donation, and one-third thought the minimum hemoglobin level for blood donation is 12.5 g/L in men and 12 g/L in women. Negative attitudes toward blood donation included a donation to relative request only (24%), paid donations (29.7%), and belief of probability to get infected (34%).^[11]

Researches about blood donation KAP has been published from other regions in KSA, but still, there is a lack of studies conducted in Taif city especially among medical students. This study aims to assess the KAP of blood donation among medical Students in Taif University, Saudi Arabia, 2020.

Subjects and Methods

The study was approved by Taif University Research Ethics Committee. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Taif city between September 29, 2020, and April 29, 2021. All students of the medical college were contacted, and 300 responded and agreed to participate in the study. We excluded all nonmedical students from the study. The purpose of the study was explained to the students and the consent was taken through the questionnaire. All the questionnaire items were derived from a previous Saudi study done in 2019 in among health professions students in Saudi Arabia to assess their KAP of blood donation.^[9] The questionnaire used was reviewed for face and content validation by the preventive medicine and epidemiology experts in King Abdul-Aziz Medical City, Jeddah.^[9] A standardized methodology was followed in the validation of this questionnaire that included focus group discussion, expert evaluation, pilot study, reliability, and validity assessment. The first section of the questionnaire for collecting students' sociodemographic characteristics. The second section included items to test the knowledge and attitude toward blood donation. The third section included items to assess the student's practice and barriers to blood donation. The Cronbach's alpha for this study questionnaire was 0.68 which revealed an excellent internal consistency.

Data were analyzed by the IBM SPSS version 23 (IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y., USA). Qualitative data expressed as number and percentage and quantitative data were expressed as mean and standard deviation. A suitable statistical test was used accordingly. A P < 0.05 was considered significant.

Results

This current study aimed to assess the KAPs related to blood donation among medical students. The final analysis included 318 medical students from all the academic years who fulfilled the study eligibility criteria. The questionnaire had 12 items for knowledge, eight items for attitude, and 17 items for blood donation practices. All the three domains were separately calculated according to students' response to each item, where each correct answer was given a score of “1” and a wrong answer a score of “0.” Knowledge related to blood donation The mean knowledge score in our study was found to be 7.9 ± 1.5 (Min: 3.0, Max: 11.0). The scores were categorized into “Good,” “Average,” and “Poor” based on the percentage obtained >75%, 60%–75%, and <60%, respectively. The analysis showed that 33.0% (n = 105) had “good,” 30.5% (n = 97) had average, and 36.5% (n = 116) had poor knowledge related to blood donation. When we assessed the relationship of knowledge with the year of study, it was found that 6^th and 5^th-year students had comparatively “good” knowledge that other academic years that showed a statistically significant relationship (P = 0.006). There was no statistically significant difference observed between female and male students (P = 0.602) [Table 1]. The responses for each question related to knowledge are given in [Table 2].

Table 1: Relationship between knowledge level about blood donation and students' academic year and gender

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Table 2: Responses of students to knowledge questions about blood donation

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Attitude toward to blood donation: the mean score for attitude toward blood donation in our study was found to be 5.7 ± 1.4 (Min: 1.0; Max: 8.0). The scores were categorized into “Good,” “Fair,” and “Poor” based on the percentage obtained >75%, 60%–75%, and <60%, respectively, based on the Student's right and wrong attitude toward blood donation. The study showed that 28.3% (n = 90) had good attitude, 53.5% (n = 170) fair, and 18.2% (n = 58) had poor attitudes toward blood donation. Like knowledge scores, attitude showed a significant difference, where 6^th-year medical students showed a “good” attitude (30.8%) compared to other academic years and 3^rd, 2^nd, and 1^st medical students showed poor attitude toward blood donation (P = 0.003). The attitude was good in males (30.1%) compared to females (12%), which showed a statistically significant difference (P < 0.001) [Table 3].

Table 3: Relationship between practice level related to blood donation and students' academic year and gender

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Practices related to blood donation The mean practice score in our study was found to 4.2 ± 3.6 (Min: 0.0; Max: 12.0). Like attitude categorization, the scores of practices were also classified into “Good,” “Fair,” and “Poor” based on the percentage obtained >75%, 60%–75%, and <60%, respectively, based on right and wrong practices of the students toward blood donation. It was found that 17.3% (n = 55) had demonstrated good practices, whereas a majority of students (76.7%, n = 244) showed poor practices related to blood donation. The 6^th, 5^th, and 4^th-year students showed good practices compared to the other lower academic years that showed statistically significant differences (P < 0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in practices observed between female and male students (P = 0.426) [Table 4].

Table 4: Relationship between attitude level toward blood donation and students' academic year and gender

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Relationship of knowledge with attitude and practices related blood donation when we assessed the relationship of knowledge with practices, it was found about 49.1% (n = 27) of the students who had demonstrated good knowledge showed good practices, and the percentage of students with poor knowledge and poor practices were found to be 38.9% (n = 95). This relationship showed a statistically significant association (P = 0.026). Similarly, the percentage of students with good knowledge and good attitudes toward blood donation was 47.8% (n = 43), and those with poor knowledge and poor attitude were found to be 51.7% (n = 30), which also showed a statistically significant relationship (P = 0.002) [Table 5].

Table 5: Relationship between students' acknowledge bout blood donation and their practice and attitude related to blood donation

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Discussion

The study findings are of significant relevance as medical students have been recruited globally for blood donation awareness campaigns and service programs.^[11] In Saudi Arabia, the blood donor system is mainly conducted through replacement donors or through blood banks rather than from volunteers.^[12],[13] This is the first known study that is conducted to assess the KAPs toward blood donation among medical students in Saudi Arabia. Our study's findings showed that knowledge related to blood donation was not adequate among the study population, and only 33% of the participants had shown good knowledge about it. This is similar to a study conducted in India by Devi et al., which showed that only 33.1% of the medical students showed adequate knowledge regarding blood donation.^[14] Our study observed that only 35.2% of students knew about the volume of blood collected during each donation. The undergraduate medical curriculum needs to be updated by emphasizing voluntary blood donation and should organize regular continuing medical education programs to bridge the knowledge gap and motivate the medical students regarding voluntary blood donation. The present study findings showed that the practices related to blood donation were not satisfactory among our participants, and only 28.3% showed acceptable practices. In our study, there was a significant direct association between lack of knowledge and poor practices. About 79.2% had not donated blood in their lifetime, and 82.1% agreed that they are willing to donate blood in the future. This willingness is much higher compared to other studies done in other countries.^[15],[16] Medical students should be provided with opportunities by holding regular blood donation camps and awareness campaigns, which may help boost the motivation to voluntarily donate blood and create a positive attitude toward voluntary blood donation.^[17] A study conducted by Dean et al. among North American and Caribbean medical students reported that lack of time, lack of eligibility, lack of incentives, and fear of infection were the barriers to voluntary blood donation.^[18] The majority of the medical students (86.8%) in our study had the opinion that no incentives should be offered to a voluntary donor.

Another study conducted by Uma et al. among medical students reported that fear of pain while injecting needles and during the transfusion process were the main factors that made them abstain from donating blood.^[17] Means that majority of students were willing to donate blood but when university organized blood donation camp as they hesitate to go individually out side the university. These findings show that organizing such camps by their own universities or colleges would motivate them to donate blood voluntarily.

In our study, almost half of the students (49.1%) supported blood importation from other countries. This is in contrast to another study conducted among the public in Saudi Arabia, which reported that 91% of the participants objected to such importation from outside the country.^[12] Another surprising finding was only 44% agreed that blood donation is a religious duty, and 38.1% disagreed that donation cannot be made while fasting. This may be due to a lack of knowledge on religious ruling related to blood donation among our participants. We assume that majority of the students in our study are coming from and live in an Islamic environment, and the religion is deep-rooted in this country. Donating blood to save the life of a needy patient is considered a matter of high religious value. More than half of our participants (51%) said their family did not want them to donate blood or encouraged them not to. As a result of all of the above findings, it is important to recognize that students from various religious and cultural backgrounds have different blood donation cultures.

In this digital era, social media plays an important role in motivating and recruiting blood donors, and the use of these types of media among medical students has increased substantially.^[19],[20] According to a study conducted in Saudi Arabia, social media was widely utilized to look for blood donors, with the majority of those who donated blood (82.1%) receiving inquiries through social media platforms.^[21] In our study, only 6% of the medical students donated blood for donors from a request through social media. Medicine students can serve as a readily available cohort for blood donation as they are easily accessible for the attached college or university hospitals.^[22] Medical students must display adequate understanding and a positive attitude toward blood donation, and possibilities for improving motivation for volunteer blood collection should be developed.

Limitations

Our study faced only a few limitations such as small sample size and the lack of time for medical students prevented some of them from completing the questionnaire. In addition, the use of a self-reported questionnaire for data collection, which may have had a recall bias, was another limitation.

Conclusion

Our study aims to assess the KAPs toward blood donation among medical students in Saudi Arabia. In this study, only 33% of the participants had shown good knowledge about blood donation. Similar findings to a study conducted in India. And only 28.3% of our participants showed acceptable practices. There was a significant direct association between lack of knowledge and poor practices. 82.1% of our participants agreed that they are willing to donate blood in the future Organizing blood donation camps is needed to improve attitudes and practices toward blood donations. Moreover, future studies including all medical students in Saudi Arabia are recommended to assess their KAP about blood donation.

Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledge the cooperation of all participants.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

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