International Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology Research

Vol. 5(2), pp. 100-107, June, 2019. © www.premierpublishers.org. ISSN: 1406-089X

Research Article

A Community Survey of the Willingness, Perceptions and Practice

of Blood Donation Among Adults in Kano Metropolis
*Abdullahi Abduljaleel1, Taiwo Amole2, Lawal Kayode Olatunji3
1,2Department of Community Medicine, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria
3Department of Community Medicine, Usmanu Dan Fodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria

Blood donation is the major way of acquiring blood in emergency situations, major surgeries and
blood related obstetric complications. The disparity between willingness to donate and the real
practice of blood donation has implication for the establishment of blood transfusion services in
Nigeria. This community survey of the willingness, perceptions and practice of blood donation
among adults in Kano metropolis identified factors associated with willingness to donate as well
as perceptions and practice of blood donation. This was a descriptive cross-sectional survey of
adults from four of the eight local Governments areas within Kano metropolis employing a mixed
method of data collection; i.e. comprising a quantitative and qualitative component, using a multi-
stage sampling method. Relevant history on the willingness, perceptions and practice of blood
donation were obtained using a structured interviewer administered questionnaires and in-depth
interviews. Data were entered and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM
SPSS) version 20. A total of 215 out of 216 respondents were surveyed, giving a response rate of
99.5%. Their ages ranged from 18years to 65years, with a mean age of 30.5 (± 10.5) years. There
were 101 (46.8%) males and 113 (52.3%) females. Respondent’s willingness to donate blood was
94.9%, while practice of blood donation was 25.5%. All respondents had a good perception of
blood donation and indicated that it was a way of saving other peoples’ lives. Willingness to
donate blood was high in this study; however, this did not translate well to the practice of blood
donation. Efforts should be made by government and organizations involved in blood donation
to increase awareness and encourage people to donate blood voluntarily through efforts such as
signing blood donation card.

Keywords: community, willingness, perceptions, practice, blood donation

INTRODUCTION

Blood donation; the process of removal of blood from one
person (donor) and transfusing to another person
(recipient) is the major way of acquiring blood in
emergency situations following road traffic accidents and
blood related obstetric complications. It is an
indispensable component of the health care contributing to
saving millions of lives each year in both routine and
emergency situations, and permit complex medical and
surgical interventions to improve life expectancy and
reduce human suffering (WHO, 2016).
countries do not have structured blood donor programmes
and cannot attract sufficient numbers of donors to meet the
need for blood in emergencies, planned surgery or regular
transfusion for conditions such as sickle cell anaemia, thus
voluntary blood donations remain a strong foundation for
safe and sufficient blood supply. Although the demand for
blood transfusion far exceed the supply, advance medical
technologies and availability of more donors, have resulted
in increase in number of people who live longer and
healthier annually (Bellomo and Zamperetti, 2007).

In developing and transitional countries, chronic blood *Corresponding Author: Abdullahi Abduljaleel,
shortage is not uncommon and blood donations are largely Department of Community Medicine, Bayero University,
dependent on blood provided by families or friends of Kano, Nigeria. E-mail: abdullahiabduljaleel27@gmail.com
patients who require transfusion. Generally, these Tel: +2347033879475

A Community Survey of the Willingness, Perceptions and Practice of Blood Donation Among Adults in Kano Metropolis
Abduljaleel et al. 101
Willingness to donate blood is mostly high worldwide
unlike the practice which is high in few developed countries
and generally low in developing countries (WHO, 2009;
WHO, 2010). Average blood donation rate in developed
countries is 38.1 donations/1000 population and 2.3
donations per 1000 population in developing countries
(Chester and Anthoney, 2004; WHO, 2007). In WHO
African region, blood requirements were estimated at
about 8 million units in 2006, but only 3.2 million units were
collected – about 41.5% of the demand (WHO, 2009).The
prevalence of voluntary blood donation in Nigeria is 10%
(NBTS, 2013) i.e. only four in one thousand peoples are
voluntary donors despite the fact that up to half of the total
population are medically fit to donate (Chester and
Anthoney, 2004). Although, it is the commonest form of
tissue donation in our environment there is need for
increase advocacy for voluntary blood donation to meet
the overwhelming demand. This will go a long way in
achieving WHO goal for all countries to obtain all blood
supplies from voluntary unpaid donors by the year 2020 in
accordance with the United Nation assembly resolution
28.72 which was adopted since 1975.
There are little published data on the status of blood
donation in different state across Nigeria. This study was
conducted with the aim of finding out people’s willingness,
perceptions and practice of blood donation in order to
comprehend the situation and find ways to enhance blood
donation in the Nigeria.
METHODOLOGY
The study was conducted in four of the eight local
government areas (LGAs) of Kano metropolis, namely;
Tarauni, Nasarawa, Dala and Ungogo. A descriptive
cross-sectional study was employed with a study
population that encompassed adults between the age of
18 to 65years within the selected local government areas
for the quantitative while adults who had previously
donated blood and those who had never donated blood
were selected for the qualitative component. Those with
certain chronic illnesses like viral hepatitis and HIV were
excluded. Sample size was estimated for the quantitative
component using Fisher’s formula
n = Z2pq/d2
Where:
n = the desired sample size (when population is greater
than 10,000)
Z = the standard normal deviate, usually 1.96 which
corresponds to the 95% confidence interval.
P = prevalence of blood donation (willingness to donate)
as obtained from previous study is 85.0% (i.e 0.85) (NBTS,
2000).
Q = 1.0 – P
d = degree of accuracy desired, usually set at 0.05
: . n = (1.96)2 x 0.85 x 0.15/0.052
n = 0.4898/0.0025
n = 195.9, approximately 196
A Community Survey of the Willingness, Perceptions and Practice of Blood Donation Among Adults in Kano Metropolis
In order to compensate for non- or incomplete responses,
the sample size was increased by 10% giving a total of
216.
For the qualitative component, seven donors and seven
non-donors were selected from each of the four LGAs
totaling 28 each for donors and non-donors.
A multi-stage sampling method was used to select the
study subjects for the quantitative survey. In the first stage,
four local governments’ areas (LGAs) namely; Tarauni,
Dala, Nasarawa and Ungogo were selected randomly from
the list of eight local governments in Kano Metropolis. The
lists of settlements from the selected local governments
served as the sampling frame for the second stage. One
settlement was selected randomly from each of the
localities by drawing lots; the settlements in each of the
LGA were written separately on small pieces of papers,
then folded and mixed-up on a table, a random selection
was then made. The houses in the selected settlements
were then sampled proportionately. In houses with more
than one household, one was selected through a one-time
ballot. Finally, an adult was selected randomly from among
the eligible adults in the selected household, and this
person was administered the questionnaire.
For the qualitative survey; an in-depth interview was also
conducted among 7 donors and 7 non-donors from each
of the 4 settlements selected. This provided insight about
specific areas that could not be captured in the quantitative
method described above so as to generally improve the
quality of the study and “create room” for more qualitative
studies in future. Participants were selected by nomination
from each of the settlements above. Donors were
regarded as those that had donated blood before and were
willing to donate more while non-donors were those that
had never donated blood before and were not willing to
donate in future.
An interviewer-administered structured questionnaire
adapted from previous studies, (Duboz et al, 2010; Ameen
et al, 2015) was used as data collection tool for the
quantitative while an in-depth interview was used for the
qualitative component; participants’ responses were
recorded using a tape recorder and/or note taking.
Responses were graded on a 5-point Likert type scale
namely; strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and
strongly disagree.
Two research assistants; a midwife and a male X-ray
technician were trained for the purpose of data collection.
The research assistants worked as team with the female
facilitating the participation of the female subject in each of
the selected settlements. For the in-depth interview; the
researcher guided the discussion, introduce the topic and
read out an open-ended question for the participants to
respond. The research assistant records the conversation,
takes note and wrote down his observations about any
“body language” or any relevant subtle signs noticed
 Int. J. Public Health Epidemiol. Res. 102

during the discussion. The research assistants underwent RESULTS

2 days training on how to carry out the survey and a pre-
testing done from an LGA not included in the final Table 1: Socio-Demographic Characteristics of the
selection. It took an average of 6minutes to interview each respondents
of the participants using the structured questionnaire and Socio-demographic Frequency Percentage
an average of 15minutes to conduct in-depth interview. Variables (n) (%)
The questionnaires along with participant’s responses Age group (years)
were reviewed and found to be culturally acceptable and
<20 18 8.4
free from ambiguity.
20 – 29 102 47.4
For the quantitative, data was analyzed using SPSS 30 – 39 57 26.5
statistical software; version 20. Respondents’ ages were ≥40 38 17.7
summarized using mean and standard deviation. Other
variables like level of education, marital status etc. were Sex
summarized using frequencies and percentages. Chi Male 101 46.8
square test was carried out to assess the level of Female 113 52.3
association between the socio-demographic
characteristics of respondents and willingness and Marital Status
practice of blood donation while for the qualitative; Single 71 32.9
responses were “boiled” to essential information using Married 131 60.6
systematic and verifiable process. These are then
Divorced 2 0.9
transcribed taking note of relevant quotes. Transcripts
were then clean up by stripping off non-essential words Widowed 7 3.2
and simultaneously assigning each new thought or idea Educational Qualification
therein. Participant’s responses were in row against their None 7 3.2
serial numbers in column, this is then entered as such to
Qur’anic 30 13.9
excel database.
Primary 14 6.5
Ethical clearance and approval were sought from Kano Secondary 95 44
State Research Ethics Committee. Thereafter a written Tertiary 64 29.6
informed consent was also obtained from each participant
prior to the interview after explaining the aims and Others 1 0.5
objectives of the study to them. Occupation
Farming 19 8.8
Limitations includes possibility of social desirability as
people tend to answer questions in a way society expect Civil Servant 52 24.1
them to answer when confronted with questions that has Trading/Business 115 53.2
moral and ethical implications, recall bias, and difficulty in House Wife 3 1.4
recruiting the non-blood donors.
Others (e.g students) 25 11
Ethnicity
Hausa/Fulani 176 81.5
Yoruba 23 10.6
Igbo 16 7.4
Religion
Islam 169 78.2
Christianity 43 19.9
Atheist 3 1.4

Out of the 216 respondents approached, 215 consented to

participate in the study giving a response rate of 99.5%.
The age of respondents ranged from 18years to 65years
with a mean of 30.5 (± 10.5) years (table 1).

A Community Survey of the Willingness, Perceptions and Practice of Blood Donation Among Adults in Kano Metropolis
Abduljaleel et al. 103

Table 2: Respondents Willingness to Donate Blood among the respondents

Statement Agree Undecided Disagree
Blood donation is good and should be encouraged 208 (96.8%) 4 (1.8%) 3 (1.4%)
Religion support blood donation and transfusion 200 (93.0%) 14 (6.5%) 1 (0.5%)
Enough willing blood donors for those in need in the community 147 (68.3%) 62 (28.8%) 6 (2.8%)
Willingness to donate blood if required 200 (93.0%) 4 (1.9%) 11 (5.1%)
Willingness to sign blood donation card 187 (87.0%) 12 (5.6%) 16 (7.4%)
Willingness to receive blood transfusion if required 196 (91.1%) 13 (6.0%) 6 (2.9%)
Encouraging family and friends to donate blood if necessary 194 (90.3%) 13 (6.0%) 8 (3.7%)
Trusting the health workers to handle donated blood appropriately 143 (66.5%) 52 (24.2%) 20 (9.3%)
Knowing status as far as transfusion related infections are concern 207 (96.3%) 6 (2.8%) 2 (0.9%)
Overall, 204 (94.9%) of the respondents were willing to donate their blood. Of the respondents, 208(96.3%) agreed that
blood donation is good and should be encouraged, 3 (1.4%) disagree and 4 (1.9%) were undecided (table 2).
Table 3: Factors Associated with Willingness to
Donate Blood among the respondents
Characteristics Willing n Unwilling n ᵪ2 p-value
(%) (%)
Age group (years)
<30 113 (94.2) 7 (5.8) 0.1**
≥30 91 (95.8) 4 (4.2)
Sex
Male 96 (95.0) 5 (5.0) 0.01 1.0**
Female 108 (94.7) 6 (5.3)
Marital status
Unmarried 77 (92.8) 6 (7.2) 0.3**
Married 127 (96.2) 5 (3.8)
Figure 1: Practice of Blood Donation
Education
Only 55 (25.5%) of the respondents have ever donated
Informal 36 (92.3) 3 (7.1) 0.4**
blood before while 161 (74.5%) have never donated blood
Formal 168 (95.5) 8 (4.5) in the past (figure 1).
Occupation
Civil Servants 48 (90.6) 5 (9.4) 0.1** Table 4: Frequency of Blood Donation among the
Others 156 (96.3) 6 (3.7) respondents
Ethnicity Number of Blood Frequency Percentage
Hausa/Fulani 169 (96.0) 7 (4.0) 0.1** Donation (n) (%)
Others 35 (89.7) 4 (10.3) 1 31 14.2
Religion 2 19 8.7
Islam I60 (94.7) 9 (5.3) 1.0** 3 5 2.3
Christianity 44 (95.7) 2 (4.3)
5 4 1.8
** = Fisher’s Exact
Table 3 shows various factors associated with willingness 6 1 0.5
to donate blood; no factor shows association with 7 1 0.5
willingness to donate blood.
Of the people that had donated blood in the past, 31
participants donated only once so far, 19 of the
respondants had donated twice, 5 people donated three
times (table 4).

A Community Survey of the Willingness, Perceptions and Practice of Blood Donation Among Adults in Kano Metropolis
 Int. J. Public Health Epidemiol. Res. 104

Table 5: Factors Associated with Practice of Blood Donation among the respondents
Characteristics Ever Donated n(%) Never Donated n(%) ᵪ2 p-value
Age group (years)
>30 29 (24.2) 91 (75.8) 0.30 0.60
≥30 26 (27.4) 69 (72.6)
Sex
Male 28 (27.7) 73 (72.3) 0.50 0.50
Female 27 (23.7) 87 (76.3)
Marital status
Unmarried 21 (25.3) 62 (74.7) 0.01 0.90
Married 34 (25.8) 98 (74.2)
Education
Informal 13 (33.3) 26 (66.7) 1.50 0.20
Formal 42 (23.9) 134 (76.1)
Occupation
Civil Servants 13 (24.5) 40 (75.5) 0.04 0.80
Others 42 (25.9) 120 (74.1)
Ethnicity
Hausa/Fulani 47 (26.7) 129 (73.3) 0.60 0.40
Others 8 (20.5) 31 (79.5)
Religion
Islam 48 (28.4) 121 (71.6) 3.30 0.07
Christianity 7 (15.2) 39 (84.8)
From the table above it is clear that no factor shows significant association with practice of blood donation.

DISCUSSION In Lagos, Nigeria, willingness to donate blood to

Willingness to donate blood in this study is 94.9%, almost
similar to the finding of a study conducted in Germany
were willingness to donate was found to be 94.2%. The
high willingness to donate blood is higher in younger age
groups in both studies.
In Asia, willingness to donate blood as obtained in two
previous similar studies conducted in Saudi Arabia and
India were 99% and 87.3% respectively (Dieter and Jorg,
2005; Abdel et al, 2011) close to the finding of this study.
Willingness to donate blood in this study was slightly
higher compare to what is seen in other African countries;
for instance in Ghana and Ethiopia, willingness to donate
blood were 86.6% and 77.5% respectively.(Sabu et al,
2011; Tanyel, 2015).The observed differences with this
study could be as a result of differences in religions; i.e.
more orthodox (88.9%) and Christian (87.6%) in Ethiopia
and Ghana studies respectively in which there is likelihood
of Jehovah witness and other sects been more
represented in the studies. In another study conducted
among university students in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
(Yenework et al, 2016). willingness to donate blood to
relatives was 94.5%, almost similar to finding of this study,
although willingness to donate blood generally was 89.3%,
this was probably due to sampling method used which
involve voluntary participation of study participants as
opposed to the random selection method in this study,
couple with the fact that the study was done among
University students who are assumed to be more enlighten
about blood donation.
family/friends is 77.8% while willingness to donate blood
voluntarily is 46.8% (Sekoniet al, 2014). This disagrees
with finding of this study where most respondents donate
blood as a desire to help others. In Cross River, Nigeria; a
study was conducted to improve voluntary blood donation
at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, 79.7% of
the respondent were willing to donate blood freely while
less than one-third (20.3%) were not willing to donate
blood at all (Tanyel, 2015). The most common reason for
non-donation and non-acceptance of blood transfusion
was religious belief. The little difference observed in the
finding of this study and that of the index study suggest
that religious believe play a vital role in determining
willingness to donate blood.
Similarly, willingness to donate blood is high as seen in
another study conducted in University of Benin Teaching
Hospital, Nigeria (Okpara, 1989) where willingness to
donate blood was 81.6%. In Ilorin, North Central Nigeria,
willingness to support antenatal blood donation was found
to be 85.8% (Salaudeen and Odeh, 2011) close to finding
of this study.
The practice of blood donation according to finding of this
study is 25.5%, less than one-quarter of donors (n=31;
14.2%) had donated once in their life times and much
lower than that (n=19; 8.7%) had donated twice. Most of
the donors (n =42; 14.8%) that had donated blood in the
past did so 1 -5years before the study was conducted. The
commonest reason for donating blood among donors is a
desire to help others. One hundred and sixty-one
participants (74.5%) had never donated blood before. This

A Community Survey of the Willingness, Perceptions and Practice of Blood Donation Among Adults in Kano Metropolis
Abduljaleel et al. 105
is much lower than 42.3 per 1000 population found in
another study conducted in Italy to determine state of the
art on promoting blood donation. (Grecuccio et al, 2017).
Practice of blood donation is slightly lower than it is in a
previous similar study conducted in South India where
practice of blood donation was 29.5% out of which only
12% were voluntary blood donors (Abdel et al, 2011). In
two separate studies conducted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
(Bantayehu, 2012) and La Dadekotopon, Ghana (Sabu et
al, 2011) the practices of blood donation were 32.6% and
29.5% respectively, slightly higher than finding of this
study. This could be due to more level of awareness
among the study participants, as respondents with tertiary
education constituted more than half in the two separate
studies compare to the 29.6% in the present study.
In another study conducted in Lagos, South Western
Nigeria, a small proportion of the respondents (12%) had
ever donated blood (Sekoni et al, 2014). The largest
proportion of those who had donated blood (81.3%) did so
because a relative needed a donor while only 12.4% of
donors had donated blood of their own volition. This is
different from the finding of this study where donation
practice is more than twice their own, this could be as a
result of religious and cultural differences, however, both
study shows that larger proportion of blood donation goes
to donor’s relations.
Donation practice of 25.5% in this study is almost similar
to (22.1%) that of a study conducted among health care
workers at the university of Benin Teaching Hospital,
Nigeria in which all the study participants were within the
age range of potential donors just like in this study
(Elionora et al, 2016).This could be due to religious
differences; as a number of respondents in their study
were Jehovah witness compares to more Muslims in this
study. Finding of this study is slightly higher than 22.6%
obtained in a study done in Ilorin, North Central Nigeria
(Ameen et al, 2015).
There is no statistically significant association between
predictor variables and the outcome variable (Practice of
blood donation). This clearly means that people donate
their blood only when the need to do so arise; regardless
of their age, sex, marital status, occupation, ethnicity and
religion.
The in-depth interview conducted in this study was aimed
at retrieving participants thought, experiences and beliefs
about blood donation. Most of the donors interviewed were
actually potential donors as they have never donated their
blood before but claimed positive attitude towards the
process. The donors had only donated once and only a
few of them had donated multiple times. The non-donors
had never donated blood in the past and had no intent to
do so even in future.
In this survey it was discovered that both the blood donors
and the non-donors held similar perceptions in some
A Community Survey of the Willingness, Perceptions and Practice of Blood Donation Among Adults in Kano Metropolis
aspects of the blood donation such as in the perspective
that blood donation is good as it is a way of assisting
others/save other people’s lives. They were also similar in
the cultural belief that blood donation was not ideal for
women. It was noted that individual perceptions vary with
different construe or interpretations for blood donation.
The perceptions of blood donors commonly revolved
round their experiences with relations who were in need of
blood; for example, children, wives, parents and friends,
while their relations who need the transfusion as medical
treatment see it as their means of survival. These
experiences on both sides of the donors and recipients
encompass history, culture and life itself and are
expressed in different languages. Despite the complexity
associated with blood donations, both donors and non-
donors believe that it is an act that prolongs life and they
both hold on to their relatives and friends. The concepts of
lives and death were both used or talked about during the
survey as they are related to blood donations and
transfusions. Both blood donors and non-donors believe
that blood donation is an act that prolongs live. The donors
wish to donate their blood to their close relations so that
they remain alive and continue to pursue their lifetime
dreams, while the non-donors use other alternative of
getting blood for their relations including a plan to “buy”
blood for them. Some blood donors present to the blood
bank regularly and claim to be part of the recipient’s
relation, they however donate their blood for money, at
times they connive with some staffs in the blood bank so
they are called upon when the need to donate blood arise.
This is most likely due to poverty and ignorance. Blood
donation is good as it “saves lives” and this was a popular
statement among majority of the respondents surveyed
and has also remained an important component of blood
donation campaign slogans adopted by many countries
including Nigeria. This is a strategy that is supposed to be
used to encourage donors to donate blood voluntarily
without offering them any material reward aside little re-
imbursement in the form of transport fair or time off work.
As such, donating blood will be a socio-cultural act that will
enable people to play their social role in the process of
protecting life. Donating blood actually makes one feel he
is being kind to others and he is being seen as somebody
supportive in the society. Blood donors also benefit from
being screened for blood related infections and knowing
their blood groups, this boosts their moral as it is a prove
that they are not just supportive but also free from those
diseases, especially those associated with social stigma.
Therefore, blood donation remains an important process
as donors’ health statuses are conveyed to them to provide
them the opportunity to further take care of themselves.
Respondents’ knowledge on blood donation and blood
bank in Kano aimed to explore indications for blood
donation, eligibility for donation, when and where blood
should be donated. Most of them had average knowledge
of blood donation; they believed that blood donation
becomes indicated when there is shortage from whatever
cause, they also know that blood is donated by any healthy

adult except for the fact that a number of them quoted that
“it’s only those whose blood matches that of the recipient
that should donate blood” this means that they believed
blood is being donated only when it is indicated and
voluntary donation is still obscure. Both the blood donors
and the non-donors also knew that blood is donated in
hospitals, laboratories and some even went further to state
that blood can also be collected by civil society
organizations during massive campaign. This knowledge
of where blood is to be donated is very important as it
means that participants know where to go and donate their
blood and equally seek for information regarding their
infection status among others. Regarding when should
blood be donated; varying responses were recorded,
some believed it should be 3monthly, for every 6 months,
very few reported anytime and others said annually.
Therefore, responses ranged from once to 4 times in a
year. This is close to what is allowed annually, but too
frequent blood donation might appear overwhelming for
potential donors.
Both the donors and the non-donors admitted the fact that
blood donation is an issue that concerned them. This
response by all the respondents might be to abate the
social stigma often associated with being negative about
social responsibilities like the act of donating blood.
On the question have you ever taken a choice to be a
blood donor? The regular blood donors responded freely,
while most of the non-donors claimed various reasons for
not taking any step to become blood donors. Some
claimed they had medical illnesses like typhoid, viral
hepatitis, not having enough blood, pregnancy and breast
feeding among others. This category of respondents
probably lacked good knowledge of the concept of blood
donation, because typhoid is not one of the infections
routinely screened for prior to blood donation. Those who
claimed viral hepatitis infection probably knew this during
their previous attempt to donate blood.
The blood donors believed that blood donation fitted their
life style generally, since it’s not a daily exercise and that
as long as it does not interfere with their daily activities,
they can present themselves for blood donation.
When asked what information potential donors would seek
for before donating their blood and where they will seek for
such information, majority of the donors claimed that they
will want to know whether they are fit to donate blood, their
blood groups, how frequent they could donate and whether
their blood matched that of the recipient.
In trying to assess respondent’s opinion about voluntary
visit to blood bank for the purpose of blood donation; most
of them including the non-donors expressed that it was a
good gesture and a way of helping others. This is similar
to the altruism promulgated earlier but practically people
hardly walk to blood bank to donate their blood voluntarily.
A Community Survey of the Willingness, Perceptions and Practice of Blood Donation Among Adults in Kano Metropolis
Int. J. Public Health Epidemiol. Res. 106
On the factors that should be put in place to encourage
people to donate blood; most of them claimed that there
should be increased awareness. Awareness had no doubt
increased people’s knowledge of blood donation and many
have claimed to be willing donors but once it comes to the
real practice of blood donation majority decline. This
complexity associated with blood donation is in
accordance with theory of planned behavior; people’s
initial beliefs are changed by knowledge/information about
blood donation, they then develop positive attitude towards
it, then intention and finally the real practice of blood
donation. It is at this last stage that many people “turn
back” therefore it becomes important to develop measures
of breaking this barrier so that more blood donors can be
recruited.
CONCLUSION
Willingness of blood donation was high in this study;
however, this does not translate to the practice of blood
donation. Blood donors mostly donate when there is a
need or eventuality and the concept of voluntary blood
donation is still obscure. The donors and non-donors
perceived blood donation as a good practice even though
some of them had reasons such as health issues and
cultural beliefs that prevented them from donating blood.
In view of this the following were recommended;
1. Government and civil society organization: Effort
should be made to promote the practice of blood
donation. This can be through incentives in form of
encouraging willing donors, reducing waiting time at
blood banks, giving and signing of blood donation
cards.
2. Researchers: Future researchers would need to use
qualitative methods to explore people’s socio-
demographic characteristics and other factors
informing their decisions regarding blood donation to
narrow the gap between willingness to donate and
practice of blood donation.
REFERENCES
Abdel GAM, Osman AA, Gahtani FH. Attitude to blood
donation in Saudi Arabia. Asian J Transfus
Sci. 2011;5(2):121–126.
Ameen HA, Isiaka LS, Okesina BS. Willingness to support
antenatal blood among married men in a metropolitan
city in North-central Nigeria. Niger Postgrad Med J
2015; 22:169-73.
Bantayehu D. Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of
Voluntary Blood Donation and Associated Factors
among Health Care Providers in Addis Ababa health
Facilities, Ethiopia. Occup Med Health Aff.2012; 3: 209.
Bellomo R, Zamperetti N. Defining the vital condition for
organ donation. Philos Ethics Humanit Meds.2007;
2:27.
Abduljaleel et al. 107
Chester JK, Anthoney AM. Tissue Engineering; stem cell
and cloning: opportunities for regenerative Medicine.
Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. 2004
May. 15(5): 1113-1125.
Dieter KT, Jorg L. Willingness to donate blood: an
empirical analysis of sociodemographic and motivation
related determinants. Health Services Management
Research 18.2005; 165 – 174.
Duboz P, Macia E, Cuneo B. Socio-demographic and
attitudinal factors to blood donation in the urban
population of Dakar Senegal. J of blood
Transfusion.2010; 2713 – 2720.
Elionora E, Wilhellmuss M, Rune N. P. “Knowledge,
Attitudes, Practices, and Factors Associated with
Voluntary Blood Donation among University Students
in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania,” Journal of
Transfusion, vol. 2016, Article ID 8546803, 8 pages,
2016. doi:10.1155/2016/8546803.
Grecuccio C, Ferraro M, Colafelice M. Blood transfusion
practicestate of the art on promoting blood donation in
ItalyBiomedicine & Prevention. 2017; 1 -89.
National Blood Transfusion Committees (NBTC):
indication codes for Transfusion-an audit tool. 2013
Apr. [Cited 2016 Jan 16]. Available from:
///C:/Users/HP/Downloads/nbtc_recs_indication_code
s_13_10_01.
National Blood Transfusion Services Nigeria (NBTS):
Ministry of health; 2000 Available
http:www.nbts.org.ng.
Okpara RA. Attitudes of Nigerians towards blood donation
and blood transfusion. Trop Geogr Med 41. 1989: 89-
93.
Sabu KM, Remya A, Binu VS, Vivek R. Knowledge
Attitude and Practice on Blood Donation among Health
Science Students in a University campus, South India.
Online J Health Allied Scs. 2011;10(2):1–3.
Salaudeen AG, Odeh E. knowledge and behavior towards
voluntary blood donation among students of a tertiary
institution in Nigeria, Nigeria Journal of clinical practice.
2011. 52: 21 – 25.
Sekoni AO, Balogun MR, Odukoya. Blood donation
practice and willingness to donate among residents of
an urban slum in Lagos Nigeria. The Nigerian
postgraduate medical journal. 2014. 54: 117 – 22.
A Community Survey of the Willingness, Perceptions and Practice of Blood Donation Among Adults in Kano Metropolis
SPSS for Windows, Rel. 20.0.1. Chicago: SPSS Inc.;
2007.
Tanye S. Perception of Voluntary blood donation among
the youth in La dadekotopun, Ghana.2015 Jul; 1 -58.
WHO and International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies. Towards 100% voluntary blood
donation: a global framework for action 2010, 10.
World Health Organization voluntary blood donation, 2007.
World Health Organization.Global database on blood
safety.Reported 2001 – 2002. Cited 2016 Feb 26.
Available from: http://www.Who.int/bloodsafety/GDBS.
World Health Organization. Screening donated blood for
transfusion-transmissible infections:
Recommendations. 2009; 24-30.
World Health Organization: WHO Blood Safety Indicators,
Blood Geneva, 2009.
Yenework AJ, Ahmed E, Kedir YA.Knowledge, attitude
and practice towards blood donation and associated
factors among adults in DebreMarkos town, Northwest
Ethiopia BMC Haematology, 2016. 16:23.
from
Accepted 14 February 2019
Citation: Abduljaleel A, Amole T, Olatunji LK (2019). A
Community Survey of the Willingness, Perceptions and
Practice of Blood Donation Among Adults in Kano
Metropolis. International Journal of Public Health and
Epidemiology Research, 5(2): 100-107.
Copyright: © 2019 Abduljaleel et al. This is an open-
access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original author and source are cited.