PRACTICE AND FACTORS INFLUENCING BLOOD DONATION AMONG RESIDENTS IN IBADAN NORTH WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, OYO STATE, IBADAN, NIGERIA

Abstract

Blood products play an important role in modern medical procedures that can both save and extend life. But the problem regarding a permanent shortage of blood is observed in blood services all over the world. In spite of the continuous advocacy to recruit more donors to save life, there is still a great deal of blood shortage owing to the fact that people do not donate blood. As a result of this, many lives that could have been saved are lost day-in-day-out. This study was therefore designed to investigate the practice and also factors influencing blood donation among Residents in Ibadan North-west Local Government Area of Oyo State, Ibadan, Nigeria. This cross-sectional study involved 400 randomly selected, consenting residents within Ibadan North-west Local Government Area. A semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to elicit information on the socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of blood donation, practice of blood donation, attitude of residents towards blood donation, perceived benefits and factors influencing blood donation among residents. Knowledge, practice and attitude towards blood donation were measured on 37-point, 5-point and 16 points respectively. Knowledge scores of 0-13, 14-25 and 26-37 were rated poor, fair and good respectively. Practice scores of 0-2 and >2-5 were rated poor and good respectively and attitude scores of 0-8 and >8-16 were rated negative and positive respectively. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics; Pearson’s Chi-square test at p-value ≤0.05 level of significance. Age of respondents was 33.1±11.9 years, 56.0% were males, 52.8% were married, and then 39.0% were single. Only 19.8% of the respondents had donated blood before, out of which 58.2% were males, also, 51.9% were between the ages of 26-45 years, 95.0% had at least secondary education and 64.6% were married. Among the total respondents, only 4.0% had good knowledge of blood donation and 18.3% had good practice of blood donation. However, 83.0% had positive attitude towards blood donation. The major barriers to blood donation were that 59.0% potential donors were afraid of knowing their infection status, 54.0% were afraid of death due to blood donation and 52.5% were not enlightened on blood donation. The major reason why donors donated their blood was the critical need to save the life of a family member or loved one through replacement donation and only a few (5.5%) of these blood donors were voluntary non-remunerated donors. There was a significant

relationship between educational status of respondents and knowledge of blood donation, as well as respondents’ knowledge of blood donation and practice of blood donation. Majority of the respondents had positive attitude towards blood donation, but only a few of them practise it. This is because there is poor knowledge of blood donation process; even though they seem to have some awareness. This accounts for the poor practice of blood donation. Therefore, proper and effective public enlightenment and advocacy is recommended.