title: Assessing Acceptability of Short Message Service Based Interventions towards Becoming Future Voluntary Blood Donors.
abstract: All blood bank services, especially those of developing countries, face a major shortfall of blood donations due to lack of voluntary blood donors. Our study aims to evaluate the acceptability of Short Message Service based interventions towards becoming voluntary blood donors among medical university students of Karachi, Pakistan. Methods. A total of 350 medical students were approached in medical universities of Karachi, Pakistan, using a nonprobability convenient sampling technique. Data collectors administered a self-made questionnaire to each participant using an interview based format. All data was recorded and analyzed on SPSS 16. Results. 350 participants, having a mean age of 21.47 ± 1.36, were included in our study with 30.6% (107/350) being males and 69.4% (243/350) being females. 93.4% (327/350) of participants agreed that donating blood was healthy, but only 26% had donated blood in the past with 79.1% donating voluntarily. 65.7% (230/350) of the participants agreed to take part in Short Message Service based behavioral interventions to become voluntary blood donors with 69.7% (244/350) also agreeing that Short Message Service reminders will promote them to donate blood more often. Conclusion. With university students willing to become voluntary blood donors, Pakistani blood banks can carry out Short Message Service based interventions to encourage them to donate blood.
authors.affiliation: Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Sana
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3972-356X
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saleem
authors.affiliation: Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Anum
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5570-6735
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wasim
authors.affiliation: Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Sidra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sabih
authors.affiliation: Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Ayisha Farooq
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Madiha Hasan
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7459-6535
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Rizvi
authors.affiliation: Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Umaima Ayesha
authors.initials: UA
authors.lastname: Jillani
authors.affiliation: Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Mujtaba Jamal
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Syed
authors.affiliation: Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Madiha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mumtaz
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Yasmeen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mumtaz
authors.affiliation: Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Abdul Moid
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2012-7581
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Shehzad
authors.affiliation: Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Om
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Dawani
authors.affiliation: Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Saima
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Sheheryar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Munir
authors.affiliation: Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Nava
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Asad
authors.affiliation: Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Abdul Nafey
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Kazi