At-risk behaviors in blood donors: efficiency of a new selection questionnaire.

The clinical selection of volunteers for blood donation is essential to red uce the risk of viral transmission by blood transfusion. The aim of this st udy was to evaluate a new questionnaire for a pre-donation medical intervie w This questionnaire was developed by transfusion practitioners, epidemiolo gists and professional investigators, and focused on risk behaviors of bloo d donors and their partners. Five blood banks in the French Ile-de-France r egion (around Paris), participated in the study front May 1995 to January 1 996. All participating doctors were specifically trained by professional in vestigators. The sex and the age of donors, the type of collection, the dur ation of interviews and the reasons for exclusion from donation were record ed. The results were compared to these of a prior study dealing with a samp le of 15,000 donors presenting the same characteristics, whose blood was ta ken of at the same collection sites in 1993. Of the 1,527 volunteers donati ng blood, 14% were interviewed in fixed centers and 86% by moving teams (38 % in firms, 22% in towns, 13% in civil service facilities, 13% in school or academic centers). For 15.9% of the volunteers, this was the first donatio n (range: 7.3% in fixed centers to 41.5% in school and academic centers). T he mean duration of the interview was 11 min (10 min for volunteers include d, 14 min for donors excluded from donation). It decreased from 14 min at t he beginning of the study to 10 min by the end of the study. The percentage of donors excluded for risk behavior (3.7% in 1995-96 vs 1.5 % in 1993, P < 0.001), or medical reasons (22.2% in 1995-96 vs 8.4%, in 199 3, P < 0.001) was significantly greater in 1995-96 than in 1993 (15.9% vs 9 .9%, P < 0.001). In 1995-96, 35.0% of exclusions for risk behavior were rel ated to male homosexuality, multiple partners or the risk behavior of the p artner vs 12% in 1993 (P < 0.001). The risk of exclusion was 5.5 times high er for donors not living in a couple. The results obtained demonstrated the value of this new approach to the medical interview. (C) 1999 Elsevier, Pa ris.