Future doctor's perspective of saving lives through blood donation: A cross-sectional study to assess knowledge, attitude, and blood donation practice among 2nd year medical undergraduate students

Background: The requirement of blood and its components has always been on a rise, and meeting this growing demand can only be assured through the development of newer encouragement strategies for the recruitment and retention of more healthy voluntary young donors. Medical undergraduate students with an appropriate knowledge and a positive attitude can form an important part of this pool as well as help encourage others for the same. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire was provided to all 2nd year MBBS students who were posted to the Department of Pathology, KAHER's J. N. Medical College, Belagavi, Karnataka, and willing to be a part of this study. Responses of the questionnaire were recorded and quantitative evaluation of the data was done using software Epi Info™ 7.2.2.6. Results: A total of 280 undergraduate MBBS students participated in the study. Knowledge: 88.2% and 86.1% of the students knew the correct donor selection criteria for minimum age and hemoglobin level, respectively. Practice: Only 21.1% of the students had donated blood before. Attitude: 96.1% favored voluntary donation. 95% were willing to donate blood in the future with 82.5% willing to encourage others to do the same. Conclusion: Medical students have a good knowledge and positive attitude toward blood donation, but the practice of the same was very poor. Hence, there is a need to educate and approach these students to create an awareness regarding the importance of blood donation as well as involve them in voluntary blood donation.