ASSESSMENT OF MEASURES DESIGNED TO INCREASE BLOOD DONATION REGULARITY

An increase in the regularity of blood donation is desirable for two m ain reasons. First, the lower incidence of viral disease markers in re gular donors when compared to first donors could help to reduce risks of transmissible diseases. Second, a higher frequency of donation coul d contribute to a more satisfactory supply of blood products. Two meas ures implemented with the aim of increasing the regularity of blood do nation were evaluated: (i) an increase in the annual frequency of bloo d collection by mobile teams at collection sites, and (ii) a ''next do nation document'' given to each donor indicating the earliest possible date of the next donation. The regularity index was calculated as the mean number of cellular donations (whole blood and platelet apheresis ) per donor per year, over two consecutive periods: 1-7-1993 - 30-6-19 94 (P1) and 1-7-1994 - 30-6-1995 (P2). The junction of these two perio ds corresponded to the date of introduction of the ''next donation doc ument'' and to the time of reinforcement of the mobile collection freq uency. First donors in either period were not taken into account in th e study. A significant relationship was observed between the annual fr equency of mobile collection and the average number of donations per d onor (comparison test of two means on large samples, p < 0.001 in all the cases excepted those of stable mobile collection numbers). Thus, i n the first period, the average donation rate was the lowest on sites having only one mobile collection per year (M: 1.55, W: 1.38) and the highest on sites with five mobile collections per year (M: 2.05, W: 1. 71). These average numbers significantly increased in the second perio d as compared to the first (M: + 4.8 %, W: + 1.8%; comparison test of two means from paired series, p < 0.001), as did the yearly frequency of mobile blood collections (+ 9.2%). On the other hand, the ''next do nation document'' was not associated to any change in the regularity i ndex. The results of this study therefore showed an increase in the fr equency of visits of mobile collection teams to be the main factor lea ding to an improvement in the regularity of blood donation. Moreover, this evolution was associated with a decrease in the incidence of vira l markers detected at donation. (C) 1998 Elsevier, Paris.