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ABSTRACT
Introduction
Blood donation is crucial for certain populations, such as pregnant mothers, anemic patients, traumatized patients, and individuals undergoing surgery. The imbalance between the number of blood donors and the demand for blood in Ethiopia is a serious public health concern. Having a favorable attitude towards blood donation could aid in correcting this imbalance. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the proportion of favorable attitudes, types of blood donation, willingness, and feelings towards blood donation in Ethiopia.
Methods
Several databases were searched to retrieve the available articles. Heterogeneity and publication bias were assessed using the Galbraith plot with Cochrane I2 statistics and funnel plot with Egger's test, respectively. Subgroup analysis was done to identify the cause of the substantial heterogeneity.
Result
The pooled prevalence of favorable attitudes about blood donation was 65.28% (60.10–70.47). A higher prevalence was reported among studies conducted after 2020, in Northern Ethiopia and among health care professionals: 72.66%, 68.45%, and 69.41%, respectively. The percentages of people who had good feelings, willing to donate, and encouraged others to donate are 83.99%, 74.23%, and 77.96%, respectively. Conversely, 42.84% of participants believe that risk will happen following donation. There was an association between knowledge and attitude towards blood donation (AOR = 1.76; 95% CI: 1.48–2.99).
Conclusion
The findings of this study may imply the preparation of a blood donation campaign that helps the community. Concerned bodies from governmental and non-governmental organizations may arrange and design community education, which may increase the number of voluntary donors.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Author’s contributions
AG and MB designed the study, designed and run the literature search. All authors (AG, MB, and AW) acquired data, screened records, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias. AG did the statistical analyses and wrote the report. All authors provided critical conceptual input, analyzed and interpreted the data, and critically revised the report. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Data availability statement
All related data have been presented within the manuscript. The dataset supporting the conclusions of this article is available from the authors on request.