Analysis of Blood Donor Deferral Causes in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital: A Key to Recruit Blood Donors

Background: Blood donors are rejected for various reasons. Deferred donors generally have a negative feel¬ing about themselves as well as the blood donation process and in future, these donors are less likely to return for blood donation. Retention and re-entry of these temporarily deferred donors can be achieved by analyzing the reasons of their deferrals and ameliorating the causes wherever possible. Aim of the study : The aim of this study was to know the profile of donors who come for blood donation at a tertiary care hospital, Hyderabad and also the reasons for blood donation deferral among them. Materials & Methods : The study was conducted at tertiary care teaching hospital in Hyderabad. All those who attended for donation between 1st January 2013 and 31st December 2016 were included in the study. Results: Out of 75,167 donors, 70,173 donors have donated the blood and a total of 4994 (6.64%) donors were deferred. Out of 4,994 donors deferred, 4,670 (93.51%) were males and 324 (6.49%) were females; 4,804 (96.19) were replacement and 190 (3.81%) were voluntary donors respectively. Predominant age group deferred was in the range of 18-30 years. Temporary and permanent deferrals were 76.37% and 23.63% respectively. Most common reason for deferral was low haemoglobin (49.09%) followed by alcohol consumption (1.5%) and drug intake (1.47%). Conclusion: Most of the studies in literature indicate high percentage of donor deferrals due to temporary causes. These temporarily deferred donors can be treated and can be brought back into the donor program