The fear of needles is quite common but perhaps patients have cause for alarm if their own doctor can’t stand them.
A study published in the January-April 2012 issue of the Journal of the Dow University of Health Sciences found that 15 out of 250 medical students across Karachi said they did not donate blood because they were afraid of needles.
Almost the same number said they didn’t know where to donate, 10 said they were afraid of pain and three even said that they couldn’t stand the sight of blood.
The study, however, was focussed on a larger issue: Who donates more, medical or non-medical students.
It was conducted at Dow Medical College, Sindh Medical College, NED University, Karachi University, IBA, Sir Syed University of Engineering &Technology, the Aga Khan Higher Secondary School, Islamia Degree College, National College, CAMS, Iqra and Sheikh Zaid Institute. The students who took part in the study were aged between 18 and 25 years old.
It included a total of 500 students (250 medical and 250 non-medical). The study ran from October 1, 2008 to March 1, 2009. The researchers wanted to assess and compare the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding blood donation among these students of Karachi.
As it turns out, surprisingly, more non-medical students donated (50 out of 250) compared to just 38 of the medical students (out of 250).
A majority in both groups said they gave blood for “humanity” and for family and friends. Blood banks and hospitals were preferred places.
Reasons for not donating were that no one had ever asked, they were too weak, they didn’t trust the services and fears of “future weakness”. Generally, women donated less.
According to national and international standards, a person must be 17 years old to donate blood but despite this some students said they were too young to do it even though all of them were 18 years or older. In spite of the average weight of 66kg in boys and 56kg in girls, 13.6% of students considered themselves too weak to donate. A minimum donor weight of 50kg is recommended to donate the usual 450+45 ml of blood because a 50kg person has a blood volume of approximately 3,750 ml. A donation of 405 to 495 ml would represent only 10 to 13% of the donor’s volume.
Different incentives play a significant role in blood donation. In this study, however, it was found that 4 out of the 38 medical students and 5 out of the 50 non-medical students had given blood for certain incentives such as extra leave, blood credit cards. juice, sandwiches, money.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 26th, 2012.
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Well, there are some physicists who are afraid that Earth isn't flat
That's nothing new, even in Western countries some medical students hate the sight of blood. I think it is because alot of them are brought up with a silver spoon, from privileged backgrounds and just become doctors for the money and so that others can worship them.