Voluntary Blood Donation: Perception and Practices among Adult Population of a Semi-Urban Area of Udaipur, India

There is a need to strengthen blood donor management in order to reduce the demand supply gap. Efforts are needed in this direction at all levels including educating and motivating more individuals to be involved in voluntary blood donation and converting them to retention donors. In order to develop rational and evidence based systems to be address blood shortage, it is needed to assess the current donor services and improve them to encourage more future donations. The present study explores the perceptions and practices of adults in a semi-urban area of Udaipur regarding blood donation and trying to identify the factors associated therewith. This cross sectional study was conducted on 3087 adult participants of semi urban areas of Udaipur from June 16, 2016 to August 15, 2016. It was observed that 91.2% of the participants were aware that blood donation is important for saving lives and 78.7% had a favorable attitude towards blood donation. However, in practice, less than 20% had ever donated blood. On further analysis educational level had found to have a significant effect on the knowledge regarding blood donation with p-value<0.00. So it can be concluded from this study that although the awareness about blood donation is quite high but very few people have actually donated blood voluntarily. Motivational interactive sessions at the community level are needed to allay the fears and misconceptions related to blood donation.