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Abstract
Background: Pakistan needs more than five million blood donations a year but collects about 2.3 million, and roughly 82% of these come from family or replacement donors. Nursing students are future health educators, and the beliefs they hold about blood donation may shape both their own donation and the advice they give to patients and families
Objectives: To assess common myths and misconceptions about blood donation among nursing students in public-sector nursing colleges of Peshawar, to evaluate their knowledge and awareness of blood donation, and to examine whether these beliefs are related to having donated blood.
Methods: A quantitative, descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out from June to October 2026 in four public-sector nursing colleges in Peshawar. Using convenience sampling, 292 students (73 per college) completed an adopted and modified questionnaire with sections on demographics, myths and misconceptions (9 items), fears and anxiety (6 items), and knowledge (7 items), each rated on a five-point Likert scale. Data were analysed in SPSS version 27 using descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, independent-samples t tests, Mann–Whitney U tests, chi-square tests, binary logistic regression, correlation, hierarchical linear regression, and one-way ANOVA with Welch and Kruskal–Wallis checks.
Results: Most respondents were female (89.4%) and aged 18–20 years (67.8%); only 16.3% had ever donated blood and 38.1% had attended an awareness session. The most widely
endorsed misconceptions were that blood banks profit by selling donated blood (61.5%), that donors risk blood-borne infection (53.1%), and that donation makes most donors faint (46.2%). The mean myths score was 2.55 (SD = 0.65) on a 1–5 scale; 60.3% of students fell in the moderate range and 7.9% in the high range. Self-rated knowledge was high (M = 3.87, SD = 0.57), with 72.6% scoring in the high band, although only 60.3% claimed familiarity with donor eligibility criteria. Donors and non-donors did not differ on myths (t(287) = −1.22, p = .224), fear, or knowledge, and none of the three scores predicted donor status in logistic regression (χ²(3) = 2.04, p = .564). Myths were unrelated to knowledge (r = −.01, p = .845) but moderately correlated with fear (r = .37, p < .001). Female students held more myths than male students (p < .001),
and myth and fear scores differed across colleges and by main source of information, with the lowest scores among students who relied on health professionals.
Conclusion: Nursing students in Peshawar rated their knowledge of blood donation highly, yet about two thirds held at least a moderate level of misconceptions, and these beliefs sat alongside, rather than in place of, their knowledge. Donation experience was low and was not explained by the measured beliefs. Teaching that targets specific misconceptions about infection risk, fainting, and the handling of donated blood, delivered by health professionals and linked to supervised donation opportunities, is recommended.