Abstract:
Blood is a vital and life-saving substance in medical emergencies. To ensure a steady supply
of safe blood and blood products, a sufficient number of self-directed blood donors from the
young population must be encouraged. For that, revealing the present knowledge on blood
donation among them is significant. The aim of the study is toassess factors associated
with knowledge on blood donation among undergraduates of University of Jaffna. An
institution-based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduates from
eight faculties of University of Jaffna. Data were collected by using pre-tested self-
administered questionnaire from 370 participants. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 25
and participants’ knowledge was assessed based on their knowledge scores, with over 60%
considered adequate and less than 60% considered inadequate. Association between knowledge
and sociodemographic factors was identified using chi-squared test. Out of 370 participants,
61.9% (229) were female and mean age was 23.5 (SD=±0.985) years. Among them 27% were
previously donated blood. From total respondents, only 25.4% had adequate knowledge on
blood donation. The mean score for overall knowledge was 44.27% (SD=±9.171). More than
half of the participants (59.7%) know the minimum recommended body weight for blood
donation. Most of the participants (73.2%) know HIV can be transmitted by blood donation
whereas only 35.7% of participants know syphilis can be transmitted by blood donation. There
was a statistically significant association between knowledge and age (P= 0.027), nationality
(P=0.05), residential area (P= 0.01) and academic year (P<0.001) and remarkably there was no
significant association between knowledge and being a blood donor. The finding shows lack of
knowledge regarding blood donation among the study population. Therefore, study suggests
implementing awareness programs and distributing information leaflets on blood donation
among targeted non-health related undergraduates will help to improve the level of knowledge.
