title: Knowledge, attitudes and perceptions among non blood donor female health care professionals.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Blood donation is necessary in order to maintain an adequate supply of blood to patients who are suffering from any kind of disease or trauma, which requires them to have blood transfusion. Female non-blood donors are generally low in number. Therefore, this research was carried out to assess the main reasons behind the lack of blood donations made by females, and their knowledge, attitude and perceptions towards voluntary blood donation.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was conducted on 664 female health professionals, who were selected by non-probability convenience sampling from two tertiary care hospitals. A pretested questionnaire was presented to the sample population, and the data was entered and analyzed on SPSS (V17).
  
  
  RESULTS
  94.6 % were aware with the fact that blood is screened for AIDS, Hepatitis B and C before transfusion. Moreover, 83.7% said that they will only donate blood if a family, relative or friend would need it and similarly 83.4%  suggested that they would donate blood if blood donation camps are arranged in hospital premises. 81.8 % thought that blood donors can contract Hepatitis B after donation where as only 29.5% did not blood due already blood loss in menstrual cycle.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The participants had adequate knowledge about the benefits of blood donation. The most important reason identified for not donating blood is the lack of facilities within the workplace or lack of approach by responsible authorities. The results of the study may help in minimizing the misconceptions of the participants about blood transfusion, which would increase their contribution towards blood donation.
authors.affiliation: Dow University Of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan. bilalmemon_744@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bilal
authors.forename: Abdul
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haseeb
authors.forename: Ibrahim
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zahid
authors.forename: Sehan Siraj
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Lashkerwala
authors.forename: Fawad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Saeeduddin
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saad
authors.forename: Mohammad Hussham
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Arshad
authors.forename: Manpreet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moorpani
authors.forename: Midhat Zafar
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: Ahsan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tariq
authors.forename: Haya
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Habib
authors.forename: Tehrema
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.forename: Rohan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Advani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001782:Blood Donors / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D010154:Pakistan; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014930:Women / Q000523:psychology*