Self-Reported Blood Transfusion Practices and Attitudes of Kenyan Medical Doctors

Abstract

Background: Blood transfusion (BT) is important in modern health care. However, the clinicians who prescribe this life-saving, scarce, and costly re- source have often been found to lack awareness of the best practices required for optimal and safe clinical use of blood components. This study aimed at determining the self-reported practices and attitudes of Kenyan-trained med- ical doctors in BT. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was carried out among eligible medical doctors, who were selected using a stratified random sampling technique. A questionnaire was used to collect data that was ana- lyzed by way of percentages, mean and median, Kruskal-Wallis H, Mann- Whitney U, and Spearman correlation. Results: A total of 150 participants were studied, with a mean age of 29.9 ± 3.6 and a male to female ratio of 3:2. About 73.3% of the participants had a positive attitude towards the practice of BT with attitude being associated with having participated in training after undergraduate medical education (p = 0.036). Overall, only 36.7% of the self-reported procedures conformed to the recommended best practices, and practice competency was associated with the site of practice (p = 0.007) and the cadre of the clinicians (p = 0.035). There was no correlation between atti- tude and practice competency scores (rs = 0.053, p = 0.521). Conclusion: The majority of the clinicians had a positive attitude towards BT, yet just above a third of their reported practices conformed to the best recommended prac- tices. Participation in training after undergraduate medical education was as- sociated with attitudes towards BT. There is therefore a need for additional education in BT in order to improve clinicians’ awareness of the best practic- es in the field.