Factors Associated with Intention to Donate Blood among Women in Nigeria

Abstract

Background: There is a shortage of data regarding the factors contributing to the low participation of women in blood donation in Nigeria. We therefore examined sociodemographic factors, knowledge of donor eligibility, donation history, deferral history, and their association with the intention to donate blood among women in Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted with 1015 women aged 18-65 in Nigeria using snowball sampling. The association between the intention to donate blood and socio-demographic factors, knowledge of donor eligibility, and donation history was assessed using logistic regression.

Results: Our results show that only 225(22.2%) had prior donation experience, 897(88.4%) expressed willingness to donate blood in the future, and 230(22.7%) had been previously deferred. The major reason for deferral was low haemoglobin level (46.1%).  Some were, however, wrongly deferred due to menstruation (12.6%) and being female (3%). Previous blood donation experience (AOR=4.93; 95% CI: 2.10-11.54),  awareness that women can be potential eligible donors like men (AOR=3.56;95%CI: 2.09-6.05), being a Muslim(AOR=2.04; 95% CI: 1.14-3.66) and previous history of deferral(AOR=2.27;95% CI: 1.20-4.30) were positively associated with the intention to donate blood in the future.

Conclusions and Recommendations: We concluded that past blood donation experience and awareness that women are eligible donors significantly predict the intention to donate blood among women in Nigeria. Female-targeted donor education and awareness programmes should be implemented to enhance the participation of women in blood donation in Nigeria. Further studies are necessary to explore the perspectives and concerns of women, blood bank personnel, and donor organizers regarding the eligibility of females as blood donors.