Introduction: Blood transfusion saves millions of life around the world. However knowledge regarding the same in the young and healthy population is not adequate. Aims and Objectives: To study the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding blood donation among medical students Materials and methods: A cross sectional study conducted in MIMS, Mandya. Student’s knowledge, attitude, and practice of blood donation were assessed by using pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. Statistical analysis was done by entering the data in Microsoft excel sheets and by calculating the means and percentages. Results: Mean age of the participants is 19.47 years. Main source of information regarding blood donation was media 59.9%. None of the participants gave 100% correct answers. Only 68% knew minimum weight, 51.1% knew minimum duration between consecutive donations,75.8% knew volume of blood drawn. Majority were aware that people with bleeding disorders (92.8%), hepatitis (94.5%) and sexually transmitted infections [STI’s] (92.3%) should not donate blood. About 17.6% said person under influence of alcohol and 18.7% said person consuming tobacco can donate blood. About 88.5% were aware of transfusion transmitted infections. About 75.2% said voluntary donors are best donors. About 31.3% participants believed that a person might get infections by donating blood. About 98.3% said donating blood is a noble cause, 31.3% participants believed it may be harmful, 87.9% were willing to donate blood however only 21.97% had donated earlier. Conclusion: Knowledge about the prior requisites to donate blood is fairly good. Fear of contracting infections and suffering discomforts post donation was observed. Conducting information and education activities should be encouraged to motivate them.

Keywords: Knowledge; Attitude; Practice; Voluntary Donors.