Iron status and dietary iron intake of female blood donors

Abstract

Despite the fact that most of these donors had an adequate dietary iron intake, more than half of the blood donors had depleted iron stores. Increasing dietary iron intake through supplements and/or dietary means is expected to be necessary to maintain adequate iron status in this group.

Dietary Determinants of and Possible Solutions to Iron Deficiency for Young Women Living in Industrialized Countries: A Review

“…The majority of cross-sectional studies in young women have not found an association between total dietary iron intake and iron status [45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59]. Those studies showing a positive relationship included women aged 35 to 60 years [60], and a study which showed a positive relationship between iron intake and serum ferritin concentrations in smokers only [61].…”

The association between frequency of blood donation and the occurrence of low birthweight, preterm delivery, and stillbirth: a retrospective cohort study

“…Regular blood donation can significantly reduce iron stores . This happens more readily in menstruating women, whose iron stores are already lower compared to men and postmenopausal women.…”

Donor base management: painting Gabriel's horn – Comment on Beckman et al., 2016

“…A steadily growing body of literature is showing that the iron depletion of whole blood donors is a serious threat to this voluntary, non-remunerated group of helpful people. Young female donors appear to be at special risk of iron deficiency (Booth et al, 2014), and a substantial part of our regular donors also do face a decreasing haemoglobin level (Hb) and an increased deferral risk for low Hb after several donations (Nasserinejad et al, 2015). Deferral rates for low Hb are known to be substantial and to increase donor lapse (Zou et al, 2008).…”