Perception of ABO and Rh(D) Blood-type in Korean Volunteer Donors

Cho, Nam Sun; Choi, Ok Yim; Lim, Young Keun; Kim, Seung Hwan; Ryu, Su Kyung; Bai, Byoung Choo; Ahn, Hyeong Sik; Kim, Sang In

Abstract

BACKGROUND: It is important to know one's own exact blood type. While the primary purpose of blood donation is an adequate blood supply, it is also an excellent opportunity for donors to confirm their blood type. Over 5% of the total population in Korea donated bloods in 1997. This study was carried out to investigate the relationship between increased participation in blood drives and an increase in members of the public's knowledge of their own blood type.
METHODS
271,346 blood donors at Dung-Bu Red Cross Blood Center answered to a questionnaire. The discrepancy ratio between perceived and actual ABO blood type was obtained through answerey questionnaire. Another 3,058 answered a more detailed questionnaire to probe their general knowledge of ABO and Rh(D) blood types were analyzed. RESLUTS: The discrepancy ratio between real and perceived ABO blood types was 1% but only 90.7% were confident of their ABO blood type. Only 58.3% were correctly answered to their Rh(D) blood type, and 98.7% of the donors who knew his or her Rh(D) blood type as negative were proved to be Rh(D) positive. The ABO discrepancy ratio was lower in females and it has decreased as blood donations increased (p<0.01). The discrepancy ratio increases with the age of the donor, and respondents over 30 had a higher discrepancy than those under 30 (p<0.01). Knowledge of Rh(D) blood type in transfusion was not well known to the general public.
CONCLUSION
The study shows that the discrepancy ratio between real and perceived ABO blood type has decreased as a national blood donation rate has increased. Nevertheless, to increase the public's knowledge of blood type in relation to transfusion, especially to increase awareness of Rh(D) blood type, it is needed to conduct test exactly and to educate the result and general knowledge of blood type and tranfusion to the public.