Study of Blood Donor Deferral in a Tertiary Care Hospital, Northern India

Introduction: Blood donation programme is vital to any transfusion service. Deferral is a painful and sad experience both for the donor and the centre. Thus, every blood centre has to pivot between admissible quality and desired quantity. Aim: To find out incidence and pattern of donor deferral in a tertiary care hospital, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India. Materials and Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of four years from January 2016 to December 2019 in a blood bank, Department of Pathology in a tertiary care hospital of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India. Details of donors who were deferred either temporarily or permanently during the study period were collected from the deferral files. Data analysis was done by calculating the percentage for every cause of donor deferral. Results: Out of the 29,663 donors who registered for blood donation during the study period, 2,626 donors were deferred due to several reasons. Temporary reasons (2592) were like anaemia, medications, alcohol, allergy, low-weight, fever, tattooing and permanent causes (34) were like hypertension, cardiac disorders, diabetes, asthma and thyroid disorders. Anaemia was the most common cause for deferral and total deferral rate came out to be 8.85%. Conclusion: Studying and analysing the profile of blood donors helps to identify categories of population which could be targeted to increase pool of voluntary blood donors. Education, motivation and treatment of these deferred donors due to anaemia or other temporary causes is an important aspect in blood banking, so that these donors may be recruited again.