DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS, UNREPORTED RISK BEHAVIORS, AND THE PREVALENCE AND INCIDENCE OF VIRAL-INFECTIONS - A COMPARISON OF APHERESIS AND WHOLE-BLOOD DONORS

BACKGROUND: The demographics, deferrable risk behaviors, and the preva lence and incidence of viral infections of apheresis (PH) and whole-bl ood (WB) donors were compared, to characterize these two populations a nd to evaluate the relative safety of PH and WE donors in terms of tra nsfusion-transmitted viral infections. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A com parison was made of 36,119 PH donors (greater than or equal to 1 PH do nation) and 1.38 million WE donors (greater than or equal to 1 WE dona tion) in terms of demographics and the prevalence (/100,000 donors) an d incidence (/100,000 person-years) of viral infections, by using data collected at five United States blood collection centers between 1991 and 1994. Deferrable risk behaviors were defined as those risk behavi ors that would have resulted in donor deferral, had they been reported . The prevalence of deferrable risk behaviors was estimated by using d ata collected through an anonymous mail survey. RESULTS: PH donors wer e older and more likely than repeat (2+ donations) WE donors to be fem ale, white, and United States-born and to have a higher degree of educ ation (p less than or equal to 0.001). The prevalence of any viral inf ection was 50 percent higher in WE donors than in PH donors (p = 0.04) , whereas the incidence of HIV, human T-lymphotropic virus, and hepati tis B surface antigen was nonsignificantly higher in WE donors. The pr evalence of deferrable risk behaviors did not differ in the two groups . CONCLUSION: Further studies will be needed to evaluate whether the d ifference in the prevalence of viral infections observed in this study can be explained by demographic characteristics and patterns of donat ion frequency.