KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES OF VOLUNTARY BLOOD DONATION AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS OF AIMC

Background: Blood is an essential component of life. In emergency situations like road traffic accidents, complications of pregnancy and childbirth and various blood disorders, voluntary blood donation is the best way to meet the blood requirements and college students form a large and healthy population of potential donors. Objective: To access the knowledge, attitude and practices of voluntary blood donation among medical students. Material and Methods: Study Design: Cross sectional study. Study Setting and duration: Allama Iqbal Medical College. Three months (April 2017-June 2017). Inclusion criteria: All MBBS students of Allama Iqbal Medical College, both female and male students (First Year-Final year MBBS) and hostellites and day scholars (First Year-Final year MBBS) Data Collection and analysis: Self –administered questionnaires were distributed among 250 participants. Data will be analyzed by SPSS version 21.0. Results: 250 respondents 125 males and 125 females participated in our study in which 244(97.6%) of students knew their blood group,100(40%) considered it to be a good deed and only 76(30.4%) had donated blood in the past among them 11(4.4%) were regular donors. Conclusions: The knowledge of the students about blood donation was high but practice of blood donation was low. Key words: Knowledge, attitude, practices, students, blood donatio