Knowledge on Informed Consent for Blood Transfusion Among Patients in Hospital Melaka and Its Associated Factors

Knowledge on Informed Consent for Blood Transfusion Among Patients in Hospital Melaka and Its Associated Factors
Original Article
Mohd Hilmi Senin, Bakiah Shaharuddin, Nor Amiza Mat Amin, Mastura Sopian
Malaysian Journal of Medicine and Health Sciences, November 2021; pp 22-31
Open Access
Abstract
Introduction
To perform blood transfusion, a physician should obtain informed consent from the patient. However, previous studies have shown a poor transfer of knowledge from the doctor to the patient regarding blood transfusion, with conflicting information as recollected by patients from informed consent discussions. This study aims to describe knowledge of informed consent for blood transfusion from the patients’ perspective.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was performed from October 2019 to May 2020 at Hospital Melaka. The instrument used in this study was a structured, validated questionnaire written in the Malaysian language. Respondents aged 18 and above, who had given their consent for blood transfusion within three days, were recruited using purposive sampling. Logistic regression was used to investigate potential predictors for good knowledge.
Results
Data analysis was performed on 239 sets of returned questionnaires, which showed that 85.8% of the respondents had good knowledge scores. Additionally, 94.1% of them were aware that informed consent is mandatory before the blood transfusion procedure. The lowest percentage of correct responses (43.9%) was regarding the timing of the informed consent. Respondents with a history of undergoing transfusion more than once (AOR = 2.18; 95% CI = 1.02, 4.65; p = 0.04), and practicing Buddhism as a religion (AOR = 0.36; 95% CI = 0.15–0.86; p = 0.02) showed significant associations with knowledge.
Conclusion
The respondents in this study were relatively knowledgeable about informed consent for blood transfusion. However, further analysis revealed the deficiency of knowledge among the respondents in several aspects of this topic. The findings can help Malaysian health authority plan for interventions that would improve knowledge of informed consent on blood transfusion among patients and the public.