Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Influencing Voluntary Blood Donation Among Students in Selected Universities, Makindye Division, Kampala District.

Abstract

The research topic of study was to establish the knowledge, attitudes and practices influencing voluntary blood donation among students in selected universities, Makindye division, Kampala District. The main objective of the study was to establish the knowledge, attitudes and practices that university students have towards voluntary blood donation. The study population comprised of university students from International Health Sciences University and Kampala University. The study design was cross sectional and descriptive in nature and both qualitative and quantitative in nature.

Data was collected using pre tested self administered questionnaires distributed to 138 respondents using simple random sampling method.

The research study established that the majority of the respondents 131 (94.9%) had knowledge about voluntary blood donation yet 88 (64 %) had never donated blood as compared to only 50 (36%) who had ever donated. An overwhelming majority of university students 82 (92.1%) who did not donate blood were not aware of their ability to donate. About 76 (55.1%) did not know the amount of blood removed per donation and the proportion who did not know the amount of blood removed and had never donated blood was 52 (55.1%). Other students failed to donate blood due to fear 27(30.7%), had never thought of it 26 (29.5%) while others were not sure about their health status 18 (20.5%).