Prevalence, donation practices, and risk assessment of blood donors with hemochromatosis

Context Despite changes in eligibility policies, practical barriers limit b lood donations from individuals with hemochromatosis. Increased knowledge o f hemochromatosis donor characteristics may help foster further changes tha t will promote more donations. Objectives To estimate the prevalence of donors diagnosed as having hemochr omatosis and to compare rates of unreported deferrable risks for transfusio n-transmissible viral infections (TTVIs), positive screening test results f or TTVIs, and donation patterns between hemochromatosis patient donors and donors reporting no medical conditions necessitating phlebotomy (non-health -related donors). Design An anonymous mail survey conducted in 1998 as part of the ongoing Re trovirus Epidemiology Donor Study. Setting and Participants Among a stratified probability sample of 92581 blo od donors from 8 geographically diverse US blood centers, 52650 (57%) respo nded. Main Outcome Measures Prevalence of hemochromatosis among blood donors; pre valence of unreported deferrable risks and positive screening test results for TTVIs among hemochromatosis patient donors vs non-health-related donors . Results One hundred ninety-seven respondents (0.4%) identified themselves a s hemochromatosis patients and 50079 (95.1%) as non-health-related donors. An estimated 0.8% of all donations were from hemochromatosis patients, 45.8 % of whom reported that they had donated blood to treat their illness. The proportion of repeat donors was higher in hemochromatosis patients than in non-health-related donors (83.5% vs 76.5%; P = .03). Among repeat donors, 6 8.7% of hemochromatosis patients reported donating at least 3 times in the past year compared with 49.1% of non-health-related donors (P<.001). The pr evalence of unreported deferrable risks for TTVIs was similar in hemochroma tosis patients (2.0%) and non-health-related donors (3.1%) as was the overa ll prevalence of positive screening test results (1.3% of hemochromatosis p atients vs 1.6% of non-health-related donors). Conclusions Although significant numbers of hemochromatosis patients report ed donating blood for therapeutic reasons, our findings suggest that this p opulation does not present a greater risk to blood safety than other donors .