Knowledge, attitude and practice of blood donation among adult population in an urban field practice area of a tertiary care hospital.

Background: Human blood is basically a vital and essentially lifesaving component. Blood scarcity is frequently observed in health care settings. Voluntary donation is the proper method for blood collection. Understanding the knowledge, attitudes of potential donors are important to improve blood donation practices. Aims and Objectives: To study the knowledge, attitude and practice towards blood donation among adult population. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional observational study was carried out among adult population in the urban field practice area of a tertiary care hospital. Adult participants were selected from registered families. A semi structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Results: 220 adults participated in the study. Average age of the participants was 39.79 years with SD 12.50. A majority of the participants were workers by occupation. 72.77 % of the participants were aware about their own blood group. Knowledge was found significantly associated with education status of the respondents. Almost all the participants had a positive attitude towards blood donation. However, only 20% of the participants had donated blood any time before. Fear of weakness, fear of blood, needles were the main reasons for not donating the blood. Conclusion: Present study shows a good knowledge about own blood group but poor knowledge about other technical aspects of blood donation.