Profile of female blood donors in the blood transfusion units of Dr. Sardjito Central General Hospital Yogyakarta

Abstract

Introduction: Blood transfusion has been widely used in various medical services due to its benefits. Blood transfusion units (UTD) in Indonesia remain to experience a shortage of 972,552 blood units, or amounted to 18.8%. The percentage of female donors in Indonesia is 27.5%, while that of male donors is 72.5%. This large difference in proportion is caused by various erroneous assumptions, including that women are considered to have donated blood naturally every month through the menstrual process. This study aims to prove the low proportion of female donors and discovering the profile of female donors in the Blood Transfusion Unit (hereinafter referred to as UTD) of Dr. Sardjito General Hospital (hereinafter referred to as RSUP Dr. Sardjito) Yogyakarta. Methods: This descriptive study utilized data from 62,221 blood donors in 2017–2019 taken from the donor database of the UTD of RSUP Dr. Sardjito Yogyakarta. Results: Female donors at RSUP Dr. Sardjito in 2017-2019 reached 13,873 (22.3%) donors, 71.6% of them having an age range of 17-30 and 38.31% of them having blood type O. Rhesus positive was found in 99.58% of donors, while rhesus negative was found in 0.42% of donors. Female donors with a Hb range of 12.5-14 g/dL reached 69.16%, while those with a Hb range of 14.1-15.5 g/dL reached 26.97%. Whole blood component was found in 99.97% of donors, and voluntary donor status was found in 94.25% of donors. Conclusion: The proportion of female donors is much smaller than that of males, with the majority being whole-blood donors. The most common blood type found in female donors is O, and the highest age range is 17 to 30. The highest Hb range is 12.5-14 g/dL. Most of them are voluntary donors.