Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Voluntary Blood Donation among Undergraduate Students in Awada Campus, Hawassa University, Southern Ethiopia

Background: Blood donation is a voluntary procedure that can help save the lives of others. Donated blood plays an important role during cases of surgery, accident, childbirth and bleeding. In Ethiopia, there has been great inadequacy and inequity in access to blood. Objective: The study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice of voluntary blood donation among students of the University of Hawassa, Awada Campus. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between March 01 and April 01 2017. The data was collected using a standardized and well-structured self-administered questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 programs. Results: Of a total 346 students who participated in the study, 109 (31.5%) were females and 237 (68.5%) were males. Two hundred and seven (59.8%) of the respondents expressed good knowledge about common types of blood groups, while 132 (38.14%) knew their own blood groups. Among those surveyed, 288 (83.4%) agreed that blood donation is good, while 7 (2.02%) thought it was bad and 51 (14.7%) have no idea. Fifty-one (14.7%) of the respondents have ever donated blood and 295 (85.3%) have never donated blood in their lives. Conclusion: The majority (59.8%) of the study participants had good knowledge and more than half (83.4%) of them had a favorable attitude towards voluntary blood donation but the practice was unexpectedly low. Therefore, awareness on blood donation should be created among university students to strengthen the existing knowledge. Keywords: Blood donation; Knowledge; Attitude; Practice; Hawass