Blood Donation - Are We Willing? - a Cross-Sectional Study Among Dental Students

Background: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice towards blood donation among a cohort of dental students. Methods: This cross-sectional study included all the undergraduate and post-graduate dental students of Panineeya Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital. A self-administered questionnaire comprised of four parts. The first part gathered socio-demographic data. The subsequent parts consisted of 11-knowledge questions (K1-11), 11-attitude questions (A1-11), and the fourth part evaluated the practice of blood donation (P1-11). p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Around 63.7% responded correctly to the question that blood donation causes transmission of infection to the donor with the use of infected needles (K5), whereas only 3.8% knew that anemics, diabetics, hypertensives, and pregnant women cannot donate blood (K9). Most of the participants had positive attitudes towards blood donation except that only 23.7% thought it is not a religious duty (A5). Overall, when the practice regarding blood donation was asked, the majority of the participants (78.2%) had never donated blood, which was significant based on gender and year of study (p = 0.0001). The mean percentage of correct knowledge was significantly higher in males (24.52 +/- 14.01; p = 0.03) but surprisingly a more positive attitude towards blood donation was seen among females (76.25 +/- 18.27; p = 0.0007). Likewise, based on the year of study, a significant difference was observed for correct knowledge and positive attitude. Conclusions: The present study reveals less than satisfactory blood donation practice among dental students and highlights the need for educational programs.