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| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2021 | Volume
: 2
| Issue : 1 | Page : 9-13 |
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Knowledge and practices of blood donors regarding COVID-19
Tarika Sharma1, Vaseem Raza1, Manglam Kumari1, Swati Srivastava2, Karthik Ponnappan3
1 College of Nursing, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, New Delhi, India
2 Department of Transfusion Medicine, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, New Delhi, India; Liver Intensive Therapy Unit, Kings College Hospital, London, UK
3 Liver Intensive Therapy Unit, Kings College Hospital, London, UK
| Date of Submission | 26-Dec-2020 |
| Date of Decision | 15-Jan-2021 |
| Date of Acceptance | 29-Jan-2021 |
| Date of Web Publication | 23-Mar-2021 |
Correspondence Address:
Ms. Tarika Sharma
College of Nursing, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, New Delhi
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/jascp.jascp_18_20
Introduction: COVID-19 pandemic has threatened the safety of both donors and recipients thus negatively impacting the blood donation process. Home confinement limits the ability of donors to attend blood services and the staff to take part in collection teams as well. The restrictions and limitations of large gatherings also reduce the number of large blood drives and campaigns. Aim: The current survey was undertaken soon after the official announcement of nationwide lockdown to assess the COVID-19-related knowledge and expressed practices about precautions among blood donors visiting blood bank. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey conducted on 109 blood donors visiting blood bank in the month of March–April 2020. Data were collected using structured knowledge questionnaire and expressed practice checklist. After collecting data, the donors were provided with information related to COVID-19, and its precautions as per the guidelines from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India. The obtained data were analyzed using the SPSS software version 22. Results: In terms of knowledge, it was found that 51.3% donors had very good knowledge, 42.3% had good knowledge, whereas 6.4% donors had poor knowledge about COVID-19. With regard to practices related to COVID precautions, it was noticed that most (90.82%) of the donors followed best practices, 9.18% donors followed good practices, whereas none of the donor followed poor practices. A significant positive correlation (P ≤ 0.01) was found between knowledge and practice score of blood donors. Significant association was seen in knowledge with educational status (P = 0.003) and practice with place of residence (P = 0.010). Conclusion: Based on the findings, it was concluded that 51.3% donors had very good knowledge, whereas 6.4% donors had poor knowledge about COVID-19. With regard to the practices related to COVID precautions, most (90.82%) of the donors followed best practices, 9.18% donors followed good practices, whereas none of the donor followed poor practices. Hence, the health-care professionals must take active steps to disseminate correct and updated information to blood donors regarding COVID-19 and related precautions.
Keywords: Blood donors, COVID-19, expressed practices, knowledge
How to cite this article:
Sharma T, Raza V, Kumari M, Srivastava S, Ponnappan K. Knowledge and practices of blood donors regarding COVID-19. J Appl Sci Clin Pract 2021;2:9-13 |
How to cite this URL:
Sharma T, Raza V, Kumari M, Srivastava S, Ponnappan K. Knowledge and practices of blood donors regarding COVID-19. J Appl Sci Clin Pract [serial online] 2021 [cited 2023 Jun 11];2:9-13. Available from: http://www.jascp.org/text.asp?2021/2/1/9/311761 |
| Introduction | |  |
The global spread of COVID-19 continues to grow, and the full extent and severity of this outbreak are yet to be seen. Furthermore, delays in diagnosis and appropriate management and in effective control measures increase the likelihood of spread. These concerns apply particularly to low- and middle-income countries where health systems tend to be weaker. In such settings, laboratory resources may be limited, notification of infectious diseases not timely or incomplete, and public health infrastructures not adaptable.[1] The COVID-19 pandemic may have caused a reduction in the number of blood donations as the global trends show a decrease in donations during the crisis compared with the same period beforehand.[2],[3],[4],[5] This pandemic has threatened the safety of both donors and recipients[6] thus negatively impacting the blood donation process. Home confinement limits the ability of donors to attend blood services and the staff to take part in collection teams as well. The restrictions and limitations of large gatherings also reduce the number of large blood drives and campaigns. Moreover, donors' fear of potential infection may lead them to refrain from donating.[7] Nurses hold a vital function, as one of the most distinguished health service teams, in delivering public awareness regarding disease prevention and in decreasing the dissemination of myths regarding the epidemic. This involves countering myths, guiding people to available health services, and supporting evidence-based patient management and infection reduction initiatives. [8,9] Hence, the current survey was undertaken soon after the official announcement of nationwide lockdown to assess the COVID-19-related knowledge and expressed practices about precautions among blood donors visiting Blood Bank of Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, New Delhi, India, and to educate them about the necessary safety measures to adopt to prevent the spread of this disease.
| Materials and Methods | | |
This cross-sectional survey was conducted among blood donors visiting the blood bank in the month of March–April 2020. The data were collected using a structured tool developed by researchers based on the literature review and expert's opinion. The tool consisted of three parts i.e., sociodemographic data sheet (7 items), knowledge questionnaire related to COVID-19 (15 items), and expressed practices checklist regarding COVID-19-related prevention (15 items). The tool was validated by experts in the field and calculated content validity index was found to be 0.89 and 0.83, respectively, for knowledge questionnaire and expressed practices checklist. The tool was also found to be reliable as the calculated reliability was 0.89 for knowledge questionnaire and 0.86 for expressed practices checklist. The tool was then administered to blood donors using the paper and pencil technique by counsellor in the blood bank after obtaining their informed written consent. The obtained papers were first put in the ultraviolet sterilizers and then collected. After collecting data, the donors were provided with information related to COVID-19 and its precautions as per the guidelines from the Ministry of Health and Welfare[10] (https://www.mohfw.gov.in/), and their queries and concerns were attended.
Ethical considerations
The survey was conducted as a part of the work assigned to the authors by the institute and hence permission from Institutional Review Board and Independent Ethics Committee was not applicable. Nature of the survey was told to the blood donors, and informed written consent was obtained from each. The participation was on the voluntary basis, and no incentives were given to the participants for their participation in the study. Confidentiality was maintained throughout the study. The COVID-19-related information was given to all blood donors irrespective of their participation in the study.
Statistical analysis
The obtained data were coded and entered in the MS excel. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied in the analysis which was done using (IBM Corp. Released 2013. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 22 Armonk, Chicago, Illinois: IBM Corp, USA).
| Results and Discussion | | |
Findings related to sociodemographic details of blood donors
A total of 109 blood donors participated in the survey. The sociodemographic details of donors depicted that around half of the blood donors (49.5%) were between 18 and 30 years of age and majority (80.7%) of them were male. As per the educational status, most of the blood donors (78%) were graduate or postgraduate. Around 45.9% of donors were in private job, whereas 22% of them were business person. In terms of place of residence, most of the donors (80.7%) were from Delhi/NCR only and all (100%) had heard about COVID-19 from varying sources such as mass media, friends, or health-care workers. These findings are also mentioned in [Table 1]. | Table 1: Frequency and percentage distribution of blood donors in terms of their sociodemographic characteristics (n=109)
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Interestingly, all of the blood donors (100%) in our study had heard about COVID-19, whereas in another study, which was also done on blood donors, 98.3% blood donors had heard about COVID-19.[7] All the donors in our study were replacement donors unlike another study[7] where a portion of the donors (24.1%) were voluntary nonreplacement donors.
Findings related to knowledge of blood donors regarding COVID 19
In terms of knowledge, it was found that 51.3% donors had very good knowledge, 42.3% had good knowledge, whereas 6.4% donors had poor knowledge about Covid-19 [Table 2] and [Figure 1]. | Table 2: Frequency and percentage distribution of blood donors in terms of their COVID-19-related level of knowledge (n=109)
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 | Figure 1: Bar graph showing the knowledge related to COVID-19 among blood donors
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Item wise analysis [Table 3] done for the knowledge questions showed that most of the donors (88.1%) were aware about the mode of transmission of COVID-19, knew about the high risk population (94.5%), were familiar with the terms like self-quarantine (85.3%), and knew the duration of isolation period (94.5%). Surprisingly, 41.3% donors did not know whether it is safe to donate blood in this time (COVID time) but still had come forward to donate. The possible explanation for this could be that as these donors were replacement donors; despite of considering the risk of donation they might have come forward to save the life of their loved one in the most crucial time. In another study conducted on blood donors in Sudan, it was found that the altruistic factor was the most common motivation for donation.[11] | Table 3: Item-wise analysis of knowledge regarding COVID-19 among blood donors (n=109)
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More gaps were seen in the knowledge of blood donors about the common signs and symptoms associated with COVID-19. This findings were not consistent with the findings of a study[7] where the participants knew that the main manifestations are cough (95·5%) and fever (85·6%).
Findings of expressed practices related to COVID-19 prevention among blood donors
With regard to practices related to COVID-19 prevention, it was noticed that most (90.82%) of the donors followed best practices, 9.18% donors followed good practices, whereas none of the donor followed poor practices [Table 4] and [Figure 2]. | Figure 2: Pie chart showing the practices related to COVID 19 prevention among blood donors
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 | Table 4: Frequency and percentage distribution of blood donors in terms of their practices related to COVID-19 prevention (n=109)
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The item wise analysis done for the practice checklist is described in [Table 5] where it is clearly mentioned that most of the donors responded well in terms of expressed practices. Majority of the blood donors practiced hand washing, social distancing, wearing mask, and refrained from touching face, nose, and mouth frequently. | Table 5: Item wise analysis of expressed practices regarding COVID-19-related precautions among blood donors (n=109)
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These findings of the study were in line with the study done by Tagny et al.[7] where they found that the blood donors took measures such as hand washing (95.9%), the use of a face mask (88.7%) and social distancing (81.2%) to avoid the infection.
Additional findings
A significant correlation (r = 0.423, P ≤ 0.01) was found between the mean knowledge and practice scores of blood donors as calculated using Pearson's correlation suggesting that as knowledge about COVID-19 increases, practices also improve among blood donors.
The association of knowledge with sociodemographic variables among blood donors showed a significant (P = 0.003) association between educational status and knowledge [Table 6]. Further post hoc test was applied to assess the direction of association which showed that graduate and postgraduate blood donors had significantly better knowledge as compared to less educated donors. Similarly, a significant association (P = 0.010) was found between place of residence and practice scores among blood donors [Table 7]. | Table 6: Association of knowledge scores with sociodemographic variables of blood donors (n=109)
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 | Table 7: Association of practice scores with sociodemographic variables of blood donors (n=109)
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Limitations
The authors have recognized some limitations in this survey. Because of being a single centric study done on a small sample size, the results of the survey may not be generalized. Furthermore, only replacement donors were studied in the survey. Expressed practices are subject to social desirability bias which may also be present in our study. The authors could find very few relevant studies conducted in this domain to discuss the present study findings. Future multicentric studies focussing on some educational interventions involving large number of replacement as well as voluntary donors are recommended. The finding of this survey may form a base to conduct such studies.
| Conclusion | | |
Based on the findings, it was concluded that 51.3% donors had very good knowledge, whereas 6.4% donors had poor knowledge about COVID-19. With regard to practices related to COVID precautions, most (90.82%) of the donors followed best practices, 9.18% donors followed good practices, whereas none of the donor followed poor practices. Hence, the health-care professionals must take active steps to disseminate correct and updated information to blood donors regarding COVID-19 and related precautions.
Acknowledgment
We would like to thank our Director, Dr. S K Sarin Sir for his vision and encouragement to carry out this project. We also thank all the blood donors for their participation in the study.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
Ms Tarika Sharma is in the Editorial board of the journal.
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[Figure 1], [Figure 2]
[Table 1], [Table 2], [Table 3], [Table 4], [Table 5], [Table 6], [Table 7]
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