Knowledge, Attitude and Practice followed by Indian Blood Donors

Background: The shortage of blood in the blood banks has always been a challenging issue. In India, there are lot are lot of myths, misconception and malpractices regarding blood donation. Therefore, we aimed to identify the knowledge level of laymen about blood donation practices, their attitude and practices followed by Indian donors, so that we can identify these factors to overcome problem of blood shortage in our blood bank in future.  Methods: The study was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted on 200 healthy persons who were visiting various outpatient departments of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh. The sampling techniques used for the present study was non- probability purposive sampling.  Results: Most donors were men (66%) and aged 18-27 years (48.5%). Only 19% of subjects had adequate level of knowledge regarding blood donation. Only 0.5% agreed with blood donation which showed that people had a negative attitude towards it. Most (83%) had bad practice for blood donation and had not experienced it.  Conclusion: The general public had inadequate knowledge about blood donation. Participants from general population were strongly against blood donation and actually did not donate blood. This gap in knowledge, attitude and practice can be corrected by providing awareness for blood donation in the schools, colleges and mass media.