There is persistent shortage of active blood donors to meet the increased demand of blood in blood banks. The safety of blood with regard to the risk of transfusion transmissible infection is also an issue of utmost concern in India. Recruitment of voluntary non remunerated blood donors poses major challenge to transfusion services. Hence, there is a serious need to improve the recruitment and retention of healthy voluntary donor population to ensure a safe blood transfusion practice. Students are the appropriate, potential population to recruit regular blood donors and the role of college students in voluntary blood donation is crucial to meet the demand of safe blood. Knowing the attitude and perception of youngsters will help to identify factors and to develop strategies that influence the recruitment and retention of voluntary non-remunerated blood donors. Objective of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice regarding blood donation among college students. This is a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out at blood bank, Srinivas institute of medical sciences and research centre, Surathkal over a period of one year. A total of 250 college students were recruited. Pretested questionnaires were used to assess their knowledge, attitude, and practice towards blood donation. The age of respondents ranged from 18 - 30 years. Majority of the donor had good knowledge about the age criteria for donor selection, minimum body weight and minimum interval between two donations. Less than half of the participants had some knowledge about the volume of blood collected, provision for blood component separation, storage and shelf life of blood components. There were 115 respondents who had never donated blood before and the chief reason for not donating blood was fear of needle. Around 90% of donors showed positive attitude by expressing their willingness to donate blood if they were asked to donate blood in future. Assessment of knowledge, attitude and perception amongst student population regarding blood donation will help in designing effective health education strategy to improve voluntary blood donation.

Keywords: Blood Donors; Blood Bank; Voluntary; Knowledge; Attitude.