Profile of blood donors and analysis of deferral pattern in a tertiary care hospital of Gujarat, India

Abstract

Background: In current medical and surgical practice, a blood transfusion can be a vital, life-saving procedure. Healthy donor recruitment and retention is a challenge that faces the health industry today. Hence studying the profile of blood donors will help to identify the population which could be targeted to increase the pool of blood donors. It is also essential that the blood collection process does not harm either the donor or the recipient. This is achieved by having donor deferral criteria. Methodology: Data was collected from the records maintained by the blood bank. Study participants included all those who donated blood between 1st January 2010 and 31st December 2012. Result: A majority of the donors were under the age of 25 (38.5 %), followed by those aged 26-35(37.60%). Males dominated the donor population (93.8%) with females making up the numbers with 6.2%. In total (3.72 %) were found unfit for donation, donors were found unfit to donate for various reasons, the majority ( 83.93%), were deferred for temporary reasons, and a smaller subset (16.07%) were permanently deferred. Conclusion 1) Total deferral during the study period was 3.72 % 2) Most common reasons for deferral were low Hemoglobin (31.95%), under weight (25.16 %), high blood pressure (13.4 %) and history of antibiotic/medication use (6.88%). 3) Majority of them (83.93%) was being deferred for temporary reasons.