Knowledge, Attitude and Practices about Blood Donation among Urban Slums Dwellers – A Cross Sectional Study

Background: It has been estimated that more than half of the donations are paid in developing countries like India. People do not know about the organizations engaged in voluntary blood donation. They are afraid about the blood donation. They have wrong concepts about the blood donations. Objective: To study Knowledge, Attitude and Practices about Blood Donation among Urban Slums Dwellers Methods: A community based cross sectional study was carried out at an Urban slum area, Shapur, Hyderabad for 4 months among 210 people. Data was collected using a predesigned , Pretested and structured questionnaire Results: About half-half subjects were aware and not aware of their blood groups. Half of the subjects did not know their own blood group. Majority of the subjects i.e. 88.1% were aware that there is a phenomenon called blood donation and what is it. 17.6% of the subjects were aware that HIV test should be performed on the donated blood before it is given to the needed person. Only 2.4% knew about the malaria test. Overall 20.9% told about the other test names which are routinely done on the donated blood. But majority i.e. 59.1% did not know that any test should be performed on the donated blood. Majority i.e. 72.4% of the subjects were not aware about the knowledge on duration between each blood donation. The maximum subjects donated the blood only once contributing to 50%. The maximum subjects donated blood to their friends contributing to 38.46% and 31% of the subjects donated to their relatives. Conclusion: Knowledge and attitudes related to blood donation was poor among the slum dwellers. Only 12.4% had donated blood but voluntary blood donation rate was very poor.