Attitudes and Perceptions of Future Blood Donors During Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background and Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the awareness, attitudes and perceptions on the crisis of blood scarcity during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in the secondary school Thai students. They participated the study by responding the questionnaires via on-line application that assessed the motivation for the intention in blood donation. In addition, the questionnaires also included other questions relating to types of public communication regarding to the process of blood donation. Descriptive statistics of frequencies, percentages, and standard deviation were calculated and presented.

Results: A total of 620 secondary school Thai students were included in this study with male to female ratio of 1:1.63. More than 70% of all participants had realized that there is crisis of blood shortage during Covid-19 pandemic; however, only 26.84% of female and 16.67% of male had an intention to donate blood. The most favorable channel for communication to receive news and information in participants was social media platform. This was found in 46.32% of female and 39.17% of male.

Conclusions: The secondary school students who are eligible blood donors in the future should be essentially concerned to be educated correctly in blood donation. Importantly, Thai male students, who had low intention of donating blood, should be intensively focused and encourage them to voluntarily donate blood.  Additionally, the main method used for communication in Thai students should be social media platform while public communication presented in school can be a supplementary channel.