A Descriptive Study of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice with regard to Voluntary Blood Donation among Medical Undergraduate Students in Pondicherry, India

Introduction: The ability to transfuse blood represents one of the great advances in modern medicine, which has made much of today's surgeries safer and possible. Voluntary blood donors are the safest and the ideal sources of good quality blood. Inspiration among and participation of the student community is essential to make the "voluntary blood donation" movement a success. Materials and Methods: A pretested, close ended questionnaire was administered to 104 randomly chosen students and their responses were further compiled and analyzed. Later, an interactive 2 hours session was organized, which gave information about the voluntary blood donation and which addressed all the issues which were a part of the questionnaire. At the end of the session, the willingness of the students in donating blood was again noted. Results and Discussion: All the participants had an incomplete knowledge regarding the various aspects of voluntary blood donation. The participants who had a relatively better knowledge had parents with a significantly higher educational status. Only 1 of the participant had donated blood so far. Among the participants, 85% were willing to donate blood voluntarily. Those who were unwilling to donate stated fear and inconvenience as the reasons for their unwillingness. The short interactive session significantly enhanced the willingness to donate blood, among those who were initially unwilling. Conclusion: Interactive awareness sessions on voluntary blood donation should be organized early after the college entry and opportunities for blood donation should be created for the students, which can greatly enhance the movement for " voluntary non- remunerated blood donation", to ensure a good quality of blood and safe modern medical care.