Knowledge, practices and barriers to blood donation among health sciences and pharmacy students in a private Nigerian university

Inadequate safe blood donation is a major public health problem in Nigeria. A stable base of regular, voluntary, unpaid low risk blood donors would assure a continuous and reliable supply of adequate safe blood and products for transfusion services in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa at large. To assess the knowledge levels, behaviours and barriers to blood donation among studied participants. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted from January to June 2023 among 628 undergraduate students. A validated 41-item self-administered questionnaire (Cranach’s alpha 0.81) was shared among the participants. Knowledge was scored across 15 items and classified using a modified Bloom’s cut-off. Data were analysed with IBM SPSS version 25. Of 650 questionnaires distributed, 628 were returned (96.6%). Awareness that donation saves lives was high (96.5%) and 93.9% agreed donation is a good idea. On the composite scale, 53.8% had good knowledge and a further 33.4% had moderate knowledge. Only 96 respondents (15.3%, 95% CI 12.5 to 18.1) had ever donated blood, of whom 53 (55.2%) donated voluntarily. The leading barrier to blood donation was lack of adequate information (81.8%). Knowledge and awareness about blood donation was fair. However there was poor donation practice among the studied population due to information gaps and misconceptions.