Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Transfusion and Apheresis Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/transci Are future doctors ready to donate blood and encourage blood donation? Ayşe Taş ⁎ , Emine Didem Evci Kiraz Public Health Department, Adnan Menderes University Faculty of Medicine, Aydin, Turkey ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Blood donation Medical student Knowledge Attitudes ABSTRACT Background: Blood donation is the most common method of supplying blood. For maintaining the reliability of the blood supply through donation, the blood should be provided by voluntary, non-profit and regularly do- nating individuals. It is critical to be aware of the attitudes, behaviors and knowledge levels of the doctors about this issue who will inform and lead people to donate blood. The aim of this study was to determine the current knowledge levels, attitudes, and behaviors of the medical faculty students, who will be future doctors, on blood donation and to investigate whether a change occurs in the these parameters with the initiation of clinical education and training. Method: This descriptive study was conducted by using a questionnaire including a total of 40 questions about blood donation. Chi-square and Mann-Whitney U tests were performed. Results: The study included 120 students in the third year of the faculty, which is the last preclinical year, and 100 students in the fifth year, which is the second year of clinical education. Of the students, 44.1% were trained for blood donation. The rates of blood donation and promoting people to donate blood were significantly higher in students who had received blood donation training compared to those who had not received such training. Willingness to donate blood and the knowledge levels regarding blood donation were significantly greater among the fifth year students. Conclusion: Efforts for raising the awareness of blood donation together with its training should be increased and popularized in medical faculties. 1. Introduction Blood transfusion is used in surgical interventions, pregnancy-re- lated complications, massive traumas, bleeding and various hematolo- gical disorders. Voluntary and regular donations without payment are needed for reliability of the supplied blood. According to the 2012 data, the voluntary blood donation among total donations reached up to 100% in 60 countries, whereas the donation rate was lower than 50% in 72 countries. The rate of blood donation was nine-fold higher in high- income countries when compared to low-income countries. There are approximately 10.000 blood donation centers worldwide and about 15,000 donations per center are provided each year in high-income countries and 3100 donations in middle and low-income countries [1]. While the presence of HIV, HBV, HCV and syphilis should be in- vestigated in the donated blood, at least one of these tests cannot be utilized in 41 countries [2]. Therefore, blood transfusion should not be performed if not necessary, and the indications should be followed. Screening for these infectious diseases in donated blood is conducted by Turkish Red Crescent in Turkey. According to the data of Turkish Red Crescent, 1.860.257 units of blood were donated in 2014. Based on these data, the voluntary donation was obtained from approximately 2.5% of the Turkish population [3]. In developed countries, the rate of the blood donation is 5%, to which Turkey should also reach. The im- pacts of misinformation and prejudice on the low voluntary blood do- nation rate are high. Misinformation concerning the side effects of blood donation such as weight gain or loss and losing blood at such a level to lead to the deterioration of health decreases the rate of the blood donations [4–7]. The rate of blood donation can be increased with education and by raising the awareness [8–10]. The efforts of doctors are of paramount importance in informing the community, campaigns, and prevention of such misinformation and prejudice. However, studies conducted in Thailand, Turkey and India have de- monstrated that doctors and medical students also had false informa- tion about that blood donation would lead to disease transmission and donation might have side effects, thus leading to low donation rates [11–13]. The attitudes, behaviors, and misinformation of doctors who have to guide society for blood donation should be determined, and then, doctors should be trained about the issues regarding blood do- nation that they have misinformation together with the importance of donation. The aim of this study was to determine current knowledge https://doi.org/10.1016/j.transci.2018.06.004 Received 22 September 2016; Received in revised form 16 June 2018; Accepted 19 June 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: aysetas90@yahoo.com (A. Taş). Transfusion and Apheresis Science xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 1473-0502/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Taş, A., Transfusion and Apheresis Science (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.transci.2018.06.004