ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE TOWARDS BLOOD DONATION AMONG UNDERGRADUATE HEALTH AND MEDICAL SCIENCE STUDENTS OF WOLKITE UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Background: Blood transfusion is a life-saving intervention that is the process of receiving blood and blood products and used in a variety of medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Recently, blood is an important concern however, in many developing countries this constitutes a problem and the gap between blood demand and supply is widening. Objective: To assess knowledge, attitude and practice towards blood donation among undergraduate health science Students of Wolkite University in 2021. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was conducted and stratified sampling method was carried out from Sep 28 2021 to Sep 30 2021 on total 303 health students of Wolkite University. The data collection was carried out by using pre-tested structured self administered questionnaire. The data collected was cleaned, coded and analyzed with SPSS version 20.0. Result: Out of 303 undergraduate health science students of Wolkite University College of health and medical science students 194(64%), 174(57.4%) them had good knowledge and positive attitude respectively. About 22.1% of them voluntary donate blood at least once in their life. Conclusion: Even though majority of students had good knowledge and positive attitude toward blood donation, practicing voluntary blood donation was low. Recommendation: Targeted strategies should be designed to increase awareness of health science students about blood donation. Strategies which encourage the students to donate blood voluntarily should also be