Saving lives through voluntary blood donation: learning from medical students in ruvuma, southern Tanzania

Abstract

Background: Medical students present a high merit and potential source of blood in hospitals due to their medical knowledge, physiological potential by age however their use has been rarely described in southern Tanzania. Objectives: The main objective of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, willingness for the future blood donation among medical students of southern, Tanzania. Methods: A cross-sectional study to assess awareness, knowledge, attitudes, willingness and factors associated blood donation among medical students in Ruvuma, Southern Tanzania was conducted from March to June 2018. A self- administered questionnaire was used and data was analyzed by IBM Corp, SPSS Version 24.0. Results: A total of 176 students were assessed at an average age of 25.8 ± 3.6 years. Eighty medical students (45.5%) ever donated blood while among them 66 (82.5%) of those being out of volunteering. About 46 (57.5%) students had a repeated experience for blood donation. Majority of students had positive attitude toward blood donation 159 (90.3%), often 135 (77%) identified voluntary blood donation to be useful and 133 (75.6%) were willing to donate in the future. Factors that were significantly associated with blood donation were age above 30 (OR=0.18, p<0.001), male sex (OR=3.69, p=0.001), past HIV screening (OR=2.59, p=0.029), knowledge of one’s own blood group (OR=4.86, p<0.001,) and knowledge of the safe duration to donate a unit of blood (OR=2.42, p=0.024). Conclusion: Medical students present a high awareness, positive attitude, and high intention to donate blood to achieve the WHO goal for non-remunerated blood donation.