The knowledge and attitudes of family medicine residents working in Ankara city Hospital towards blood donation

Introduction and Aim: Blood is a treatment modality that has no other source than human. Blood supply maintains its importance and the need for blood is increasing day by day due to the increase of medical facilities, increase in life expectancy, and emergencies. World Health Organization defines safe and reliable blood as "a blood sample devoid of infectious agents or deleterious foreign substances which may produce any risk or disease in the recipient human being". Safe blood requires volunteer donors to donate blood without any profit. This study aimed to determine the attitudes and the knowledge status of the family medicine residents working at Ankara City Hospital towards blood donation. Also, the factors influencing the blood donation status and socio-demographic features of the participants were assessed. The secondary aim of this study was to direct the attention of family medicine residents to blood donation and to provoke physicians to become volunteer blood donors and also, to gain volunteer blood donors in primary health care services. Materials and Method: This descriptive and cross-sectional study is investigating the knowledge status and attitudes of family medicine residents working in the Department of Family Medicine, Ankara City Hospital towards blood donation between the periods of August 20, 2020, and October 20, 2020. Results: The study comprised 120 physicians and 70% of physicians were never donated blood. The vast majority of the responders were female (80%). At least one blood donation rate among male responders was 70.8% and among female responders was 19.7%. Male physicians donated blood significantly higher than female physicians (p<0.001). Among all participants who never donated blood, the most common claim (%51.7) as an obstacle for donation was having a health problem. The rate of physicians to inform and encourage their patients for blood donation was 63.3%. It was observed that 49.2% of the physicians stated that they were unaware of whether there were posters or information brochures about blood donation in their workplaces or not. We found that 51.7% of the family medicine residents knew that there was a blood donation center in Ankara City Hospital. The knowledge status of physicians about the amount of blood donation that can be given at one time was questioned and found that 56.7 % of them gave the correct answer as 450 ml. The number of blood donations that can be made in a year was exam was questioned and found that 32.5% gave the correct answer as "men 4 times in a year, women 3 times in a year". There was a significant relationship between the status of knowledge about the number of annual blood donations of physicians and physicians' gender and years in their profession. Male physicians gave the correct answer than female physicians (p <0.029). Those who had a practice history for ten years or more gave the wrong answer than other physicians (p <0.016). The participating physicians (85%) stated that to increase blood donation, determining the concerns of the society about blood donation and organizing continuous training for this purpose could be effective. Discussion and Conclusions: In our study, the blood donation rate of family medicine residents were found to be 30%. The percentage of residents who donate blood each year is 3.3%. According to the data of this study, it was seen that family medicine residents should increase their knowledge about blood donation. In primary healthcare services, we think that physicians' awareness and knowledge of blood donation may increase blood donation rates. The consultancy of these physicians' to potential donors may increase the number of volunteer blood donors and may decrease the rejection rates. Our study is a rare study about blood donation in the physician group, and the first study about this subject among family medicine residents. Keywords: Blood donation, family medicine, Ankara City Hospital