Abida Sultana, Bushra Anwar, Madiha Shafi, Muneeba Faisal.
Willingness and Perception about Blood Donation in Residents of Rawalpindi City.
Pak J Public Health Jan ;6(3):44-8.

Background: Blood has always held mysterious fascination for all and is considered to be the living force of our body. It is estimated that donation by 1% of the population (10 per 1000 population) is generally the minimum needed to meet a nation's most basic requirements for blood. All around the world that there is serious mismatch between demand and availability of blood. Lack of knowledge and facilities, fear, religious, socioeconomic and cultural factors, influence willingness of people to donate blood. Objective: To assess the willingness to donate blood voluntarily to blood bank, and perception about blood donation of residents of Rawalpindi. Also to find percentage of residents of Rawalpindi who had ever donated blood. Study design: A cross-sectional survey done in Rawalpindi city, in duration of one month. Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional survey was done on residents of Rawalpindi in a period of one month, May 2015. 119 study subjects were surveyed using close-ended questionnaire. The questions asked were about their age, gender, education, occupation, willingness to donate blood and perception about blood donation in terms of social obligation and effect on health. Willingness and perception was compared in relation to age, gender, education and occupation of subjects. Results: 70% people were willing to donate blood voluntarily to blood bank. But 36.1% had donated blood previously in life. Majority persons (82.35%) perceived it as a beneficial thing for health and 91.6% considered it a social obligation. 81.5% respondents said that there are no bad effects of blood. More males and young respondents were seen to be willing for blood donation. Conclusion: Many people were willing to donate blood regarding it a social obligation and for helping others but some of them had practically donated blood due to fears of anemia and weakness mostly. Keywords: blood donation, willingness, perception

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