The effect of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation awareness in university students on being a volunteer donor

Problem/aim This study was planned in order to determine the effect of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation awareness in university students on being a volunteer donor. Method: The research as a quasi-experimental single group study with a pretest-posttest design  was completed with 1216 students who agreed to participate in the study.The data were collected through a questionnaire prepared by the researchers. The questionnaire consists of three parts and a total of 46 questions, which contains demographic attributes, knowledge about hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and questions measuring participants' attitudes. Mean, standard deviation, median, frequency, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, Pearson chi-square, Spearman's correlation tests were used to evaluate the data. The results were evaluated at a 95% confidence interval, and the significance level was p <0.05. Results: Participants  was 41% studied in health sciences departments. While the pre-training awareness of the need for hematopoietic stem cell donors in Turkey was 51.9%, it increased to 92.1% after the training. Before the training, while 25.5% of the students stated that they definitely wanted to donate hematopoietic stem cells, this percentage increased to 45.9% after the training. The average increase of 52.68±24.35 units in the post-training hematopoietic stem cell transplant knowledge score of the students compared to the pre-training was  found to be statistically significant (p=0.001) After the training, a statistically significant difference was found between the HSCT knowledge scores of the students according to their sociodemographic characteristics (gender, department, duration of degree, grades) (p=0.001) Conclusion: It was concluded in the study that the knowledge level of the students on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation was insufficient, and the training had a positive effect on their knowledge and attitude concerning hematopoietic stem cell donation.