Assessment of Magnitude of Transfusion Transmissible Infections and Associated Factors among Blood Donors at Woliso Blood Bank, South-West Shewa Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia: Across-Sectional Study

BackgroundBlood transfusion is an effective treatment for saving millions of lives, even though transfusion-transmissible infections are the major problem. The prevalence of transfusion-transmissible infections varies across different geographical populations. This study aims to assess the prevalence of transfusion-transmissible infections and associated factors among blood donors at Woliso Blood Bank, South-West Shewa Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia. MethodAn institutional-based cross-sectional study design was conducted. A structured and pretested questionnaire was used to collect data through a face-to-face interview. Data was entered into Epi Data version 3.1, and it was exported to STATA version 17.0 for data cleaning and analysis. A binary logistic regression analysis was carried out to identify factors associated with outcome variables. Accordingly, variables that fulfilled p-values <0.25 on the bivariate logistic regression were considered candidates for multivariate logistic regression to control for possible confounders. The odds ratios along with the 95% confidence interval were used to present the finding, and statistical significance was reported at a p-value of 0.05. ResultsThe overall prevalence of transfusion-transmissible infections was 9.5% (95% CI: 6.3- 12.9%). Participants with no formal education [AOR=4.84; 95% CI= 1.09, 21.46], unprotected sexual intercourse with multiple partners [AOR=4.77; 95% CI= 1.38, 16.44], and participants with less frequency of blood donation [AOR=2.85; 95% CI: 1.16, 6.99] were significantly associated with transfusion transmissible infections. ConclusionThe prevalence of transfusion-transmissible infections was high in this study area. Educational level, unprotected sexual intercourse with more partners, and a number of blood donations were found to be independent predictors of transfusion-transmitted infections. Blood banks and regional health bureaus should work on community mobilization and enhancing health promotion through prevention and control by considering the identified associated factors.