A Study to Assess the Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Blood Donation Among Undergraduate Students in a Selected Institution of Aizawl, Mizoram.

Blood is one of the essential bodily components that can save lives, yet many people struggle to get safe blood in a timely manner. In India, blood donation exceeds the annual estimated needs in the year 2024-2025. In Mizoram blood donation is considered a social obligation and cultural practice. This study aims to assess the level of knowledge and attitude regarding blood donation and to find the correlation between knowledge and attitude as well as the association between knowledge, attitude and demographic variables. In this descriptive quantitative study, a stratified random sampling technique was used. 186 undergraduates participated in this study. Data were collected using a self-structured questionnaire and a 4-point Likert scale. Data collected were analysed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS version 20. The results revealed that the majority of the students had moderately adequate knowledge regarding blood donation (n = 90, 56.4%), followed by adequate knowledge (n = 67, 36%) and inadequate knowledge (n = 29, 15.5%), while a substantial portion demonstrated a positive attitude (83.48%), and a smaller portion exhibited a negative attitude towards blood donation (16.52%). The correlation between knowledge and attitude was found not to be significant (r value 0.219). While there is a significant association between knowledge and age group of the demographic variables (p=0.045), the association between attitude and demographic variables was observed not to be significant. In conclusion, strengthening educational strategies to improve the knowledge and attitude of students is necessary to improve the recruitment of voluntary blood donation.