TY - JOUR
T1 - A survey on insight of blood donors during COVID pandemic in Southern India
AU - Chenna, Deepika
AU - Kandasamy, Dhivya
AU - Mohan, Ganesh
AU - Pentapati, Kalyana Chakravarthy
AU - Shastry, Shamee
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like thank Mr. Vishwesh, Technical Supervisor of our blood center for helping in the translation of the questionnaire to the local language. There was no funding for the performing of the research project. There was no funding for the performing the research project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Introduction: Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) surveys prove beneficial to the transfusion services by providing an insight into the donors and, thus, aiding in mobilizing and retaining voluntary blood donors. We aim to study the knowledge, attitude and practices of donors towards blood donation in a pandemic setting. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of blood donors was conducted between June to and October 2020. Non-parametric tests (Mann – Whitney U and Kruskal – Wallis) were performed to evaluate the relation of knowledge, attitude and practices overall scores with age group, gender and history of blood donations (first vs. repeat). The Chi-Square test/Fisher's Exact test was used to evaluate the differences in the distribution of Knowledge, Attitude and Practices items within the groups. Results: A total of 403 of 2,748 individuals who came for whole blood donation participated in the study. The mean age of the study population was 31.1years (SD ± 8.4 range: 18 - 58), with 75% of the donors donating for the first time. The fear of acquiring COVID-19 infection was perceived as a major reason for the eligible population not to donate. The overall knowledge, attitude and practice score among the donors was satisfactory, being 76.14%, with a significant association with age. The overall positive attitude and practices scores of blood donors were 85.48% and 78.04%, respectively. Conclusion: The KAP scores were satisfactory among the donors. Timely communication of the precautionary measures at blood centers to contain the spread of the COVID-19 infection and effective counseling would help in motivating and retaining blood donors.
AB - Introduction: Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) surveys prove beneficial to the transfusion services by providing an insight into the donors and, thus, aiding in mobilizing and retaining voluntary blood donors. We aim to study the knowledge, attitude and practices of donors towards blood donation in a pandemic setting. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of blood donors was conducted between June to and October 2020. Non-parametric tests (Mann – Whitney U and Kruskal – Wallis) were performed to evaluate the relation of knowledge, attitude and practices overall scores with age group, gender and history of blood donations (first vs. repeat). The Chi-Square test/Fisher's Exact test was used to evaluate the differences in the distribution of Knowledge, Attitude and Practices items within the groups. Results: A total of 403 of 2,748 individuals who came for whole blood donation participated in the study. The mean age of the study population was 31.1years (SD ± 8.4 range: 18 - 58), with 75% of the donors donating for the first time. The fear of acquiring COVID-19 infection was perceived as a major reason for the eligible population not to donate. The overall knowledge, attitude and practice score among the donors was satisfactory, being 76.14%, with a significant association with age. The overall positive attitude and practices scores of blood donors were 85.48% and 78.04%, respectively. Conclusion: The KAP scores were satisfactory among the donors. Timely communication of the precautionary measures at blood centers to contain the spread of the COVID-19 infection and effective counseling would help in motivating and retaining blood donors.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.htct.2022.07.009
DO - 10.1016/j.htct.2022.07.009
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85139733097
SN - 2531-1379
VL - 45
SP - 442
EP - 448
JO - Hematology, Transfusion and Cell Therapy
JF - Hematology, Transfusion and Cell Therapy
IS - 4
ER -