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. Study Design and 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). Conclusion: 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.