Abstract
Knowledge of the reasons for donor deferral can help in planning more efficient recruitment strategies and evaluating donor selection criteria. This study aimed to investigate the rates and reasons for donor deferral. Retrospective study at Shiraz Blood Transfusion Center, Shiraz, Iran. 141,820 volunteers were interviewed confidentially by physicians before blood donation. The rate of and reasons for donor deferral were investigated according to demographic characteristics. The data were analyzed using the comparison-of-proportions test of the MedCalc statistical software. 43,839 people (30.9%) who had come for blood donation were deferred, 1,973 (4.5%) of them permanently. The deferral rate was significantly higher among women, single individuals and first-time donors, compared with men, married individuals and those with a history of previous donation (P < 0.0001). The deferral rate was significantly higher in the 17 to 30-year-old group (P < 0.05). The reasons for deferral were divided into five categories: risk factors possibly related to HIV or hepatitis (43.6%), underlying diseases (31.9%), non-eligible conditions (13.5%), medications that interfere with blood donation (7.8%) and risk factors that may relate to bacterial or viral infections except HIV and hepatitis infections (3.2%). Effective measures are required for documenting the impact of deferral on blood availability, monitoring the effectiveness of and need for deferral, and determining the reasons and rates of deferral.
Highlights
Blood safety is a major concern all over the world
We investigated the deferral rate and the reasons for donor deferral among blood donors, according to demographic characteristics, in Shiraz
The top five reasons for deferral were risk factors that might relate to HIV or hepatitis infections (43.6%), underlying diseases (31.9%), non-eligible general conditions (13.5%), medications interfering with blood donation (7.8%) and risk factors that might relate to bacterial or viral infections except for HIV and hepatitis (3.2%)
Summary
Blood safety is a major concern all over the world. One of the most important steps used to ensure blood safety is blood donor selection.[1,2,3,4,5] Blood donor eligibility is determined by medical interview, based on national guidelines for donor selection.[6]. In spite of the importance of blood donor selection for blood safety, selection processes have negative impacts on blood supply because many deferred donors do not return to donate again, because of negative feelings toward their deferral.[9,10,11]
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