Prevalence, Donation Practices, and Risk Assessment of Blood Donors With Hemochromatosis
2001
ContextDespite changes in eligibility policies, practical barriers limit blood
donations from individuals with hemochromatosis. Increased knowledge of hemochromatosis
donor characteristics may help foster further changes that will promote more
donations.ObjectivesTo estimate the prevalence of donors diagnosed as having hemochromatosis
and to compare rates of unreported deferrable risks for transfusion-transmissible
viral infections (TTVIs), positive screening test results for TTVIs, and donation
patterns between hemochromatosis patient donors and donors reporting no medical
conditions necessitating phlebotomy (non–health-related donors).DesignAn anonymous mail survey conducted in 1998 as part of the ongoing Retrovirus
Epidemiology Donor Study.Setting and ParticipantsAmong a stratified probability sample of 92 581 blood donors from
8 geographically diverse US blood centers, 52 650 (57%) responded.Main Outcome MeasuresPrevalence of hemochromatosis among blood donors; prevalence of unreported
deferrable risks and positive screening test results for TTVIs among hemochromatosis
patient donors vs non–health-related donors.ResultsOne hundred ninety-seven respondents (0.4%) identified themselves as
hemochromatosis patients and 50 079 (95.1%) as non–health-related
donors. An estimated 0.8% of all donations were from hemochromatosis patients,
45.8% of whom reported that they had donated blood to treat their illness.
The proportion of repeat donors was higher in hemochromatosis patients than
in non–health-related donors (83.5% vs 76.5%; P
= .03). Among repeat donors, 68.7% of hemochromatosis patients reported donating
at least 3 times in the past year compared with 49.1% of non–health-related
donors (P<.001). The prevalence of unreported
deferrable risks for TTVIs was similar in hemochromatosis patients (2.0%)
and non–health-related donors(3.1%) as was the overall prevalence of
positive screening test results (1.3% of hemochromatosis patients vs 1.6%
of non–health-related donors).ConclusionsAlthough significant numbers of hemochromatosis patients reported donating
blood for therapeutic reasons, our findings suggest that this population does
not present a greater risk to blood safety than other donors.
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