KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF VOLUNTARY NON-REMUNERATED BLOOD DONATION AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS IN A TERTIARY INSTITUTION IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA

Background: Internationally, voluntary non-remunerated blood is considered safe. However, paid donors account for more than 90% of donated blood in Nigeria. Paid blood donors constitute a group with high-risk behaviour leading to greater chances of transfusion-transmitted infections in the recipients. The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of voluntary non-remunerated blood donation amongst medical students of University of Benin, Benin City. The study utilized a descriptive cross sectional design. Respondents were selected using a stratified sampling technique. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 20.0 software. Associations were determined using fisher s exact test and level of significance was set at p 0.05. A total of 220 respondents with mean age (S.D) of 26.2 (3.0) years participated in the study. Majority, 189 (85.9%) had good knowledge of voluntary non-remunerated blood donors. Most, 193 (87.7%) respondents had a positive attitude towards blood donation however, 25 (11.4%) had ever donated blood and actual voluntary nonremunerated blood donation was reported by only 21 (9.5%). Increasing age and male gender were associated with actual blood donation (p 0.05). Conclusion: Knowledge of voluntary non-remunerated blood donors among the studied population was good however, the practice was poor. Special awareness programmes are needed to transform this positive attitude to actual practice