An Assessment of Knowledge, Practice and Barriers of Voluntary Blood Donation among Staff and Patients of a Tertiary Hospital in Nigeria

Background: Blood and blood products are essential resources in the management of many health conditions. It has been tasking to achieve complete reliance on voluntary unpaid blood donors. Hence, assessing the knowledge, practices and barriers of voluntary blood donation can impact on improvement of the number of voluntary blood donors. Aim: To assess the knowledge, practice, and barriers of voluntary blood donation among the participants. Method: A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out using pre-tested interviewer administered questionnaire administered to 288 participants selected by systematic random sampling technique. The data was analysed using SPSS version 20. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 38.81 ± 11.67. Males were slightly more (51.70%) than females (n=149, 51.70%). Most were married (n=204, 70.80%), of the Tiv tribe (n=160, 55.60%) and were Christians (n=263, 91.30). Over half had tertiary education (n=113, 55.20%), were civil servants (n=159, 55.20%) and worked in non-health related disciplines (n=168, 58.30%) respectively. Over two-third reside in rural areas (n=206, 71.50%). 0nly 30.56% had good knowledge scores. Those who had ever voluntarily donated blood made up 11.1%. Females were less likely to donate blood (aOR=0.19, CI 0.08 – 0.48, p=0.00). Those with tertiary education were nearly six times more likely to have donated blood (aOR=5.92, CI 1.66 – 21.10, p=0.01). Those with non-health related jobs (aOR=0.00, CI 0.06 – 0.46, p=0.00) were less likely to donate blood. The most common reason for deferral was viral infections (37.50%) such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV infection. The commonest barriers of voluntary blood donation fear of blood being sold for rituals (22.6%), fear (22.9) fear of needle prick (16.7%).