Characterization of health issues in young first‐time blood donors

Abstract

Background and objectives Blood donors, especially young donors, are considered a healthy segment of the population. We sought to identify medical issues that may warrant medical referral in young first‐time blood donors. Materials and methods A retrospective cohort study was performed in first‐time donors ages 16–22 who presented in a system of nineteen regional United States blood centres over 10 years. Donor health attributes characterized include body mass index, blood pressure, total cholesterol and pre‐donation haemoglobin. Using standardized definitions, overweight and obese body mass, hypertension, elevated cholesterol and anaemia were identified and characterized in this donor population. Results Among 825 041 young first‐time donors presenting between January 2009 and December 2018, with available measurements, 46·9% were either overweight or obese, 59·8% demonstrated high blood pressure (22·2% elevated blood pressure, 37·6% stage 1 or 2 hypertension), elevated cholesterol was identified among 6·3% of males and 8·8% of females, and anaemia was present in 3·5% of males and 5·2% of females. During the study period, all unfavourable health outcomes significantly increased in prevalence (P < 0·0001) when comparing 2009 vs. 2018 rates. Conclusion Elevated weight and obesity are common in young first‐time allogeneic United States blood donors, with fewer donors having elevated total cholesterol or anaemia. Such medical issues may have significant importance for future health and well‐being as well as continued donor eligibility. Blood centres may be able to help support the identification and mitigation of important medical issues in donors and provide a public health benefit.

Research partnerships between blood services and public health authorities: An international, cross‐sectional survey

“…From 37% to 48.1% of respondents collaborated to some extent with PH authorities on studies of non‐transfusion‐transmitted infectious disease‐related pathogens or on other questions of PH interest (Figure 2). Examples include assessments of iron deficiency or anaemia, blood pressure, pulse, phthalate and cholesterol levels in donors as proxies for general population health [23, 24].…”

Donor variation in stored platelets: Higher metabolic rates of platelets are associated with mean platelet volume, activation and donor health

“…The much lower glucose consumption rates in the PAS‐E study illustrate this alternative substrate usage. Also, the inclusion of more young donors with health‐related issues, not a rare phenomenon, 25 and the ‘healthy donor effect’ could have biased this study. That the opposite, worse storage performance of PLTs from young donors, may be found 26 emphasizes heterogeneity of donors and the complexity to unravel the causes for poor storage performance.…”

A methods review of the “healthy donor effect” in studies of long‐term health outcomes in blood donors

“…Most high-income countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia, and countries in Europe have strict and similar criteria to screen their donor population to protect the health of donors and transfusion recipients, and so it is less relevant in such context. Also, some donor populations are described to be less healthy 38 and this may also impact the level of HDE in studies examining health outcomes. Further, there is an increasing trend of using blood samples collected from blood donors to measure the sero-prevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 39,40 and such studies should carefully examine how the health and demographic differences between the background population and blood donor population may impact the result of their studies.…”