Abstract
BACKGROUND: This study was undertaken to study the motivational factors leading to voluntary blood donation and understanding the psychosocial variables of blood donors. METHODS: 300 blood donors were selected by systematic random sampling method. RESULT: It was observed that most of the voluntary donors were males (89.3%) and belonged to age group 16-25 years (48%). Most of the donors (93.46%) had studied upto high school and above and 84.33% of the donors belonged to the middle class. 27% of the donors had donated blood previously. The common motivational factors to donate blood were for 'a good cause', 'for the society' and 'to save a life'. 4.67% of them donated blood for self satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Motivation, recruitment and retention of voluntary blood donors are important criteria to achieve safe blood donation.