AIM: The current study elucidates knowledge, attitude, awareness, practices and readiness of university science students towards non-remunerated blood donation in a middle-income developing country.
METHOD: The present study was conducted in the Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences, University of Technology, Jamaica. The sample was 200 students registered in undergraduate degree science programmes.
RESULTS: Knowledge and awareness of blood donation were high among the sample, but the practice of blood donation was low. Two out of every 10 science undergraduate student had given blood in the past. Majority of the respondents who had given blood in the past were because of an ill family member (86%). Seventy percentages of those who had donated blood in the past were males and 19.6% had done so in less than 6 months. Of the blood donors, 78.1% of males had given blood at least six months ago compared to 86.0% of females (χ2 = 0.631, P-value = 0.5).
CONCLUSION: We recommend large cross-sectional studies in order to understand the issue from a national perspective.
Key words: Blood donation, non-remunerated blood donation, readiness of prospective blood donors, Jamaica Article Language: Turkish English
|
