Assessment of the level and factors associated with knowledge, attitude and practice of blood donation among medical and paramedical personnel in ALERT Hospital, Ethiopia

Background: Though there was a high blood supply need in response to high communicable disease and increased emergency conditions; the practice of health professionals and non-health professionals on voluntary blood donation is still unexpectedly low in Ethiopia. Health professionals and non-health professionals working in the health sectors are pivotal in taking the lead to reverse the effect of inadequate blood supply system in the country. Therefore, the study aimed to understand the level and contributing factors of knowledge, attitude and practice of voluntary blood donation among health and non-health professionals in ALERT Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Design and Methods: A cross-sectional study design was conducted among health professionals and non-health professionals in ALERT hospital from 5 to 30 June 2018. A total of 394 hospital staffs participated in this study. A well-structured self-administered questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice about voluntary blood donation. The statistical analysis was carried out using R. Results: A total of 203 (51.5%) participants were females. Only 142(36%) of the participants had voluntary blood donation practice. Among these, 60 (42.3%) of them were donated blood more than once. Occupation is the only factor significantly associated with blood donation practice; health professionals had almost two-fold donation practice than non-health professionals (AOR=1.62; 5% CI: 1.02, 2.57, p=0.042). Occupation has also a strong relationship with knowledge, health professionals had better knowledge than non-professionals with (AOR=2.39; 95% CI: 1.39, 4.12; p=0.002). The result also showed that the educational status of the participants was strongly associated with the blood donors’ attitude with (AOR=3.62; 95%CI: 1.1, 11.93, p=0.035). One hundred and two (72.3%) of the blood donors were motivated to donate blood for charity, 133 (94.3%) individuals were felt good after blood donation and lack of request was the major reason 88.6% that causes the respondents not to donate blood frequently. Conclusions: Low blood donation practice of health professionals and non-health professionals was identified from this study. Occupation had significantly associated with blood donation practice. Therefore, targeted interventions aimed at mobilizing hospital staffs and develop accessible blood donation centers are recommended to reverse the effect of inadequate blood supply system in Ethiopia.