Background: Voluntary blood donation is promoted in order to make the blood banking safe and successful.
Research in the area of blood donation has found that, iron stores are influenced by regular blood donation if dietary
intake of iron is inadequate. Awareness and knowledge among blood donors regarding iron and B12 deficiency and
its prevention is very much required. Objective: To assess the knowledge and awareness about iron deficiency and
megaloblastic anaemia among blood donors.
Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among the 500 voluntary blood donors during the span of 1 year at
one of the blood bank of tertiary care hospital using prestructured questionnaire on the various aspect of iron and B12
deficiency/folate deficiency anemia. The data was analysed with the help of Microsoft excel and SPSS.
Results: Out of 500 blood donors, 15.6% donors were regular blood donor. It was observed 60% blood donors were
having knowledge of anemia in general. Iron deficiency and vitamin B12 deficiency were known to 42% and 31.6%
donors, respectively. Only 20% donors could able to answer the acceptable level of hemoglobin require for donating
the blood. About 42% donors were aware about importance of iron, folate and vitamin B12 in maintaining normal
hemoglobin level. Majority (82.7%) of regular blood donors were willing to get information regarding iron, folate and
vitamin B12 deficiency.
Conclusion: Significant lack of awareness regarding iron and vitamin B12 deficiency was observed in regular
voluntary blood donors. The present study recommends the Today modern banks are very useful
for the utilization of the resources
of the country. The banks are
mobilizing the savings of the people
for the investment purposes. If
there would be no banks then great
portion of capital of the country
would remain idle. A bank in fact is
the backbone of the economic
structure and the capital provided
by it is like a blood circulation
system of the body to the economy.