The effect of whole-blood donor adverse events on blood donor return rates.
BACKGROUND
Some blood donation-related adverse events (AEs) can negatively impact the blood donor return rate (BDRR) and decrease donor retention.


METHODS
One-thousand randomly selected whole-blood donors were interviewed 3 weeks after a 525-mL index whole-blood donation for seven AEs. The number of return visits and duration of follow-up were recorded for each of the 1000 donors. A negative binomial regression analysis was used to determine the contribution of the four most common AEs to the BDRR, and interactions between these AEs were also evaluated.


RESULTS
The four most common AEs were bruise alone (15.1%), sore arm "alone" (7.0%), fatigue "alone" (5.1%), and donor reaction "alone" (4.2%), where "alone" is defined to also include donors who had a bruise but no other AE. The estimated BDRR for donations without AEs was 1.32 visits per year. The estimated BDRRs for the four most common AEs were: bruise alone, 1.32 visits per year; sore arm alone, 1.30 visits per year (2% reduction in BDRR); fatigue alone, 1.06 visits per year (20% reduction in BDRR); and donor reaction alone, 0.87 visits per year (34% reduction in BDRR). The BDRR for donor reaction, fatigue, and sore arm together was 0.20 visits per year (85% reduction in BDRR).


CONCLUSIONS
Donor reaction had the most negative impact on the BDRR. There appears to be a synergistic effect between donor reaction, fatigue, and sore arm. Theoretically, amelioration of some AEs has the potential to improve BDRRs.
Newman
Bruce H
BH
American Red Cross Blood Services, Southeastern Michigan Region, Michigan 48201, USA. newmanb@usa.redcross.org
Newman
Daniel T
DT
Ahmad
Raffat
R
Roth
Arthur J
AJ
D001782:Blood Donors / Q000523:psychology; D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000523:psychology; D003288:Contusions / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D013997:Time Factors