Awareness and Attitudes among blood donation of undergraduate students: A Literature Review

Abstract

Undergraduate students represent a key population for voluntary blood donation due to their health status and potential for repeated contributions. A literature review was conducted to examine the awareness and attitudes of undergraduate students toward blood donation. The goal was to pull together findings from the past to guide health services and student groups in designing plans for voluntary blood giving on campus. Study selection followed the PRISMA guidelines, the study quality was assessed with Hawker et al.’s tool and data were then grouped using thematic analysis. All eight studies included were peer-reviewed and published in the last decade. It was found that most undergraduate students have a positive view of blood donation, often because of their altruistic, responsible and dutiful thoughts. Even so, few people actually donate because of a shortage in awareness, worries about their own health, false ideas about who can donate and difficulties arranging donations. There was a clear influence from gen-der and field of study on whether students donated. Schools, students’ own initiatives and focused campaigns were found to be successful at improving what people know and challenging common misunderstandings. It was found that if students are taught better about donating blood and who can donate, plus addressing their fears and challenges, this could substantially increase people who participate. The findings stress that effective strategies need to be designed for each community to encourage more regular voluntary blood donation among university students.