Professor, Department of Community Medicine, K.A.P. Viswanatham Government Medical College, Tiruchirapalli
Online published on 4 January, 2017.
Blood saves lives of people who suffer from certain specific chronic hematological diseases, who undergo major surgeries and in certain acute emergencies. For high quality blood transfusion services, we need to have the adequate blood and blood components.
Cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among college students. The list of colleges was obtained from the office of the Director of Collegiate Education and twenty-one colleges were selected by simple random sampling. The total number of students in the selected colleges was 28, 902. Using proportionate sampling method the number of students to be selected from each college was calculated as 59.
Of the 525 students, who participated in the study, 57% were females and 43% were male. Majority were Hindus (73.6%). 151 (28.7%) students had donated blood, out of the 525 studied (95% CI = 24.83 to 32.57). Of them, 47.7% had donated more than once. The practice of blood donation was found to be low among females.
These donors have to be motivated to become regular voluntary blood donors. If they donate blood regularly i.e. at least twice a year up to the maximum age i.e. 60 years, there will be no dearth for blood and its components. Such regular donors also tend to keep themselves free of high risk behaviours which may make them ineligible for blood donation.
Regular, Voluntary, Blood donors, HIV Infection, Transfusion
