KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF VOLUNTARY NON-REMUNERATED BLOOD DONATION AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS IN A TERTIARY INSTITUTION IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA

Background: internationally, voluntary non-remunerated blood is considered safe. however, paid donors account for more than 90% of donated blood in nigeria. paid blood donors constitute a group with high-risk behaviour leading to greater chances of transfusion-transmitted infections in the recipients. the objective of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of voluntary non-remunerated blood donation amongst medical students of university of benin, benin city. the study utilized a descriptive cross sectional design. respondents were selected using a stratified sampling technique. data was analyzed using ibm spss version 20.0 software. associations were determined using fisher's exact test and level of significance was set at p < 0.05. a total of 220 respondents with mean age (s.d) of 26.2 (3.0) years participated in the study. majority, 189 (85.9%) had good knowledge of voluntary non-remunerated blood donors. most, 193 (87.7%) respondents had a positive attitude towards blood donation however, 25 (11.4%) had ever donated blood and actual voluntary nonremunerated blood donation was reported by only 21 (9.5%). increasing age and male gender were associated with actual blood donation (p < 0.05). conclusion: knowledge of voluntary non-remunerated blood donors among the studied population was good however, the practice was poor. special awareness programmes are needed to transform this positive attitude to actual practice