Knowledge, attitude, and perception towards voluntary blood donation among university students in Nigeria

Background Adequate provision of safe blood through voluntary non‐remunerated donation (VNRD) is critical to the delivery of quality health care. Understanding the factors affecting blood donation and addressing them would lead to an improvement in blood donation in Africa. The objective of this study was to determine factors affecting VNRD among culturally diverse Nigerian students. Methods In this cross‐sectional descriptive study, 840 students were selected by a stratified random sampling technique and given a pretested semi‐structured self‐administered questionnaire which included questions on knowledge, attitude, and perception of respondents towards voluntary blood donation. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 23. Results The mean age of the respondents was 18·6 years (SD 1·8). The male‐to‐female ratio was 1:1·5. More than half (54·5%) of the respondents had good knowledge about blood donation with those of the College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CMHS) contributing the most to the knowledge base [p < 0·001, OR‐2·0, CI 95 = 1·3, 3.0]. About 62% showed a willingness to donate blood, and the highest proportion were from the CMHS [χ2 = 29·62, p < 0·001]. Of those that had donated at least once in the past, males are more likely to donate than females [37 (60·7%) vs. 27 (39·3%)] (p = 0·001, OR 2·5 CI 95 = 1·5–4·3). Conclusions Our study demonstrated that the knowledge about blood donation is inadequate among the population studied although most of them were willing to donate blood. Efforts to increase the pool of VNRD should focus on young people and especially females. We recommend that student’s societies be engaged with activities aimed to improve their knowledge of blood donation and demystify erroneous beliefs hindering blood donation. These engagements may take place at orientation programmes for fresh students, exhibitions at student unions events, and during the commemoration of the World Blood Donor Day.