A STUDY ON THE FACTORS AFFECTING VOLUNTARY BLOOD DONATION IN NATIONAL BLOOD CENTER, YANGON

Secure supply of safe blood components from voluntary non-remunerated blood donation is an important national goal to prevent blood shortages. The objective of this study is to find out the factors affecting voluntary blood donation among the public who came to National Blood Center (Yangon) for blood donation. The data was collected by well structured self administered questionnaire. Among the total 385 participants, male respondents were found to be more likely to donate blood than female respondents. The older the respondents were, the higher the knowledge about voluntary blood donation they had. The level of education increases, participants’ knowledge towards voluntary blood donation also increases. The overall level of knowledge of the respondents in this study is comparable with the prevalence of adequate knowledge towards blood donation in developing countries which is estimated to be (60.0%). Almost all of the respondents had favorable attitude towards voluntary blood donation and also were willing to donate in the future. Male participants had more sense of social responsibility than female participants. The commonest reason for voluntary blood donation was altruism and the moral factor was the weakest motivator for all respondents