Profile of Blood Donors in a Tertiary Care Centre in South India- A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Blood is considered a scarce resource in the world. Many patients requiring transfusion do not have timely access to safe blood and many lives are lost because of this reason. According to the WHO Information Sheets, 2005 80% of the worldwide population has access to only 20% of safe blood. Aim- To analyse the donor profile and the need for voluntary blood donation drives. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among blood donors attending the blood bank of a Tertiary care centre in South India from 2015 to 2019. Results: Out of 7979 blood donations, voluntary donors were only 8.5 % with most (97.8%) of the donors being males. The donors arriving at the blood bank were between 18 and 64 years of age. Of the voluntary donors, about 37% were first-time blood donors. The commonest available blood group was O positive (34.1%) and the least available was AB negative (0.8%). Among the reasons for donor rejection, mismatch between the donor’s blood group and that of the requested unit was the commonest (25.8%) followed by hypertension (22.9%) on examination. HBsAg seropositivity was the majority (0.5%) among the transfusion transmitted infections screened. Conclusion: Efforts should be made to direct all the donations towards voluntary non remunerated ones. Awareness among the general population about the need of blood donation, educating them about the criteria of acceptable donors and discussing the general myths and facts about donation process is also important.