title: Willingness to support antenatal blood donation among married men in a Metropolitan City in North-central Nigeria.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Improving blood availability through voluntary or compulsory antenatal blood donation is pivotal to reducing maternal morbidity and mortality in developing countries. Willingness to donate blood is adjudged to be an important step to the actual practice of donating blood. This study aimed to determine the knowledge, attitude and willingness of men towards antenatal blood donation.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to recruit 500 married men into the study using interviewer-administered questionnaire. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 16 software package. Pearson's Chi-squared test was used to test for significant associations between variables. A P < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  More than half 300 (60%) of the respondents had good knowledge of antenatal blood donation in general. Majority (85.8%) of the respondents were willing to support voluntary blood donation. The overall attitude to blood donation was positive in 77.8% of the respondents. A significantly higher proportion 268 (89.3%) of respondents with good knowledge of antenatal blood donation were willing to donate blood (P = 0.0006).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The majority have good knowledge and positive attitude towards antenatal blood donation. However, there is need to urgently transform this positive attitude to action through continual public enlightenment to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Epidemiology and Community Health, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara, Nigeria.
authors.forename: H A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Ameen
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Isiaka-Lawal
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Okesina
authors.forename: R O
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: Shittu
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Sanni
authors.forename: M M B
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Uthman
authors.forename: O A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Bolarinwa