International Journal of Healthcare Sciences ISSN 2348-5728 (Online) Vol. 8, Issue 2, pp: (143-154), Month: October 2020 - March 2021, Available at: www.researchpublish.com
Barriers for Donating Blood Voluntarily among People aged between 18-55 Years Living in Eastern Sri Lanka Kajenthini K1, Madhuwanthi L.D.M2, Chandrika J.P.M3, Jayarathna A.P.G.S.M4, Shanmukanathan S5,Sujendran S6 1,2,3,4,5,6
Faculty of Health-Care Sciences, Eastern University Sri Lanka, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka
Abstract: Over a million blood units are collected from every donor every year, nevertheless, many more millions still need to be collected to meet the global demand of blood. A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out for a period of one year aimed to assess the public knowledge, attitude, motivational factors and barriers for donating blood voluntarily in an administrative division of eastern Sri Lanka. After obtaining informed written consent, data were collected through a pilot tested, Interviewer Administered Questionnaire, frequencies, percentages and associations were assessed. A total of 405 respondents were interviewed, of which 194 (47.9%) were male and 211 (52.1%) were female. The majority (51.36%) of the respondents had adequate knowledge regarding blood donation and majority of the respondents (92.3%) answered positively as blood donation is a healthy habit. Only 33.6 % of the individuals had previous experience on voluntary blood donations. There were significant associations with the socio-demographic characteristics of gender, age, education, occupation and blood group with a p-value of less than 0.05. Nearly half of the participants (49%) had inadequate knowledge on blood donations and motivational factors such as altruism, peer pressure, media awareness had influence among more than half of them. This study revealed fear of seeing blood or feeling faint and needle pain as the barriers for voluntary blood donations among more than 55% of the participants. Attitudes related to blood donations were not significantly associated with socio-demographic characteristics but they may have contributed to the barriers of donating blood. This study identified factors influencing knowledge, attitude and motivation towards voluntary blood donations and they can be eliminated from the society through conducting series of well-planned awareness programmes. Keywords: Motivational factors, Voluntary blood donations, Humanity.
I. INTRODUCTION A. Background Human blood is vital constituent of human life which is universally recognize as the most valuable element that sustains life and there are no substitutes to blood as yet. Blood is a connective tissue composed of a liquid extra cellular matrix called blood plasma that dissolves and suspend various cells and cell fragments. The blood donation is transfer blood or components of blood from one person (donor) in to the blood stream of another person (recipient). It acts as a lifesaving operation to replace the blood cells or blood products lost through the bleeding or due to the depression of bone marrow. Blood transfusion was first performed in Sri Lanka in late 1950s. In Sri Lanka, the details of blood collection in every cluster in 2017 was reported and the amount of the mobile campaigns conducted in the country in 2017 were 5463, and the total collection of blood donors were 423 668 from the population. The National Blood Transfusion Service Statistic reported that the number of blood collections in 2017 in Batticaloa District from 108 mobiles was 6367. This is a lower number in comparison with other districts. According to the officials of the blood bank in Teaching Hospital, Batticaloa, people are more reluctant to donate blood voluntarily when requested
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