A study on knowledge and awareness about blood donation amongst government medical, para-medical and nursing undergraduate students in Jamnagar, Gujarat

Aim and Objective: The aim of the study was to compare the reasons for blood donation and knowledge about blood donation among medical science undergraduate students. Materials and Methods: A random cross-sectional study was conducted among 500 government medical sciences' undergraduate students in Jamnagar during the period of 3 months (February 2017 to April 2017). It constitutes of MBBS, Dental, Ayurvedic, Physiotherapy, and Nursing College. A predesigned, pretested, self-administered questionnaire was devised to collect data. Data were collected after obtaining informed consent. Ethical clearance from the institute was obtained before the study. The results were analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2007 database sheet, and percentage and Chi-square test were applied to calculate association between different variables with P value set as significant when <0.05. Results: The response was gathered from a total of 500 respondents who voluntarily participated in the study. Out of them, 31.52% (n = 165) males and 14.03% (n = 335) females donated blood in their lifetime. Among MBBS students, 90.19% (n = 1100) had shown a good level of knowledge (given a positive response), whereas dental, ayurvedic, physiotherapy, and nursing student respondents showed the same by 78.27%, 71.64%, 89.55%, and 76.27%, respectively. Among factors that hindered the study cases from donating blood, the most important was that they were never approached by anyone (52.2% - whenever required) for blood donation. Conclusion: The conclusion of the present study indicates a greater awareness among the medical and physiotherapy students in comparison to nursing, dental, and ayurvedic students. Hence, these sectors need more targeted attempts to increase awareness and motivation among these masses, which will eventually enable us to increase the spectrum of motivated donors among the common people population.