Prevalence and Predictors of Voluntary Blood Donation Among Adult Ambulatory Patient Attendants at Arba Minch General Hospital, SNNPR Gamo Gofa Zone, Southern Ethiopia, September 2016 - Abstract
Background: Blood transfusion is an essential element of health care which saves life. As a result of the advances in clinical sciences and population increase, the need for blood is growing day by day all over the world. One percent of the population should donate blood to meet a nation’s basic requirement.
Objective: To assess Prevalence and predictors of voluntary blood donation among adult ambulatory patient attendants at Arba Minch General Hospital, SNNPR Gamo Gofa Zone, and southern Ethiopia
Methods and materials: Descriptive cross sectional study design was employed and semi-structured interview questionnaire was used. The data was coded, cleaned, edited, and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analysis was done to identify the odds of
independent variables. All variable with P<0.05 during bivariate binary logistic regression analysis were candidate for multivariable binary logistic regression analysis. P value < 0.05 will be declared as statistically significant.
Results: Four hundred twenty four participants were included in this study and 319(75.2%) of them were males. More than half of participants were in the age group of 25-34 years and the mean age of participants was (31.70 ± 6.634) years, 178(42.0%) had good knowledge and 334(78.8%) had positive
attitude. Males were 1.1 times more likely [AOR=1.101 (1626, 1.820)], Youths and Young adults in age group 15-24 years [AOR=1.513 (1.131, 2.011)] and in age group 25-34 years [AOR=1.462 (1.094, 2.285)]. Orthodox Christians [AOR=1.29 (1.526, 3.044)], Rural residents [AOR=0.204 (0.220, 0.613)],
Participants who completed secondary school [AOR=1.316 (1.270, 3.675)] and Participants having good knowledge about blood donation [AOR=1.56 (2.139, 2.863) were factors influencing voluntary blood donation.
Conclusion: Voluntary blood donation practice and related knowledge in our study were low. Hence it needs collaboration of responsible bodies to improve respondents’ knowledge level and voluntary blood donation practice.