Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Blood donors who repeat blood donation are considered as the safest type of blood donor due to lower prevalence of Transfusion Transmitted Infections (TTI’s) seroreactivity than other donors. In Tanzania, there is a high number of first-time donors who did not return for more donations. However, there is increase in a number of first time donors ranging from 80% to 94% in 2014 to 2017. The low number of repeat blood donors in Tanzania leads to high prevalence of TTI’s among blood donated.
Objective: To find out the magnitude and factors associated with repeat blood donation at Dar es Salaam blood transfusion centers in Tanzania.
Method; Across-sectional study was conducted in three high volume centers namely Muhimbili National Hospital, Mwanyamala and Eastern Zone Blood Transfusion Center. The data was collected for the period of 16 weeks starting from August to November 2018.Three hundred ninety-three blood donors were recruited into the study. Conveniently sampling technique was used to select the study sites and study subject was systematic randomly selected from the list of recruited blood donors in the study sites. The frequency and proportion were used for categorical variables while mean and standard deviation for the continuous variable. The Chi-square test was used to assess the strength of association, 95% CI and p-value 0.05 cut off was also used to assess the level of significance. Data analyzed using the Epi info version 7 and Stata version 13.1 software.
Results: Of the 393 participants, 48% were repeat blood donation. Age group appeared to be associated with repeated donation up to more than 46 years had higher odds of repeat donation by 2.93 times, (AOR (95% CI); 2.93 (1.28-6.72)); P = 0.010 and awareness on blood donation promotion campaigns through mass media within 3 months had odds of repeat blood donation by 12.34 times compared with blood donors who are not aware on the blood donation promotion campaigns within 3 months (AOR (95% CI); 12.34 (1.56- 13.50)); P<0.001.
Conclusion: The magnitude of repeat blood donation was low while the knowledge of the blood donation promotion campaigns has confirmed the positive impact on repeating of donation; thus dissemination of knowledge is crucial in retaining the potential donors.
