Journal of Blood Disorders & Transfusion

Abstract

Knowledge, Attitude, Beliefs and Motivations of People in Western Part of Turkey Regarding Blood Donation

Neval Agus, Nisel Yilmaz and Haluk Agus

Introduction: The blood donor system in Turkey depends mainly on voluntary donors. We think that the attitude and beliefs of people can keep them away from voluntary donation. We aimed to evaluate the factors influencing blood donation in Turkish population in the present study.

Material and Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was developed for the assessment of various aspects of the attitudes, beliefs and positive/negative effects on blood donation. A random sampling technique was used to choose the participants from among donors and non-donors. The rate of consent to the study was 91% among donors. One thousand and thirteen subjects (488 donors, 525 non-donors) completed the questionnaire and answered the questions.

Results: Among donors, gender wise men donors were found significantly higher than women (P<0.05). Repeat donors were significantly higher (p<0.05) than the first time donors. Most of donors were donated to help someone else (65.2%). Positive and negative effects were described 70.4% (347), 11.7% (57), respectively. Never had to opportunity to donate and health problems were found to be the common reasons for not donating blood in nondonor group.

Discussion: It is recommended that an intensive blood donation campaign should be maintained. This will allow people to be well informed, turning the positive attitude of saving life through blood donation to a regular practice.