Voluntary and non-voluntary blood donations among doctors

Physicians may be an important source of blood donations as they are more likely to be familiar with the importance of donating and the donation process. The aim of this study is to report physicians' knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards voluntary and non-voluntary blood donations.

This was a cross-sectional study conducted at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSH&RC), Saudi Arabia. One-hundred-and-sixteen physicians and dentists responded to an online structured questionnaire sent to their institutional emails.

Sixty-eight percent of participants (79% of males and 43% of females) reported previously having donated blood. Eighty-six percent of donors had previously donated on a voluntary basis, whereas 31% of donors had previously donated for a specific person. A recent donation within 5 years was associated with the younger age group and knowledge of the minimum interval between donations. Fifty-six percent of participants agreed with using replacement donations. Compared to participants in the youngest age group (25-35 years), older participants in the age groups (46-55 years) and (>55 years) were less likely to express intention to donate in the next 6 months (OR 0.289, P = .022 and OR 0.083, P = .004, respectively). Participants reporting poor nutritional status or other medical reasons as a barrier to donating blood were less likely to intend to donate (OR 0.146, P < .001). Among previous donors, intention to donate was associated with a recent donation within 1 year (OR 27.13, P = .002) and having had a pleasant donation experience (OR 14.98, P < .001).

Blood donation practices are strongly tied to physicians' gender and age and their knowledge of the donation process. The most significant barrier to blood donation was found to be nutritional and medical status.