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Original Article
 
Assessment of donor deferral rates and deferral reasons at the Namibia blood transfusion services
Martin Gonzo1, Aili Shuuveni2, Munyaradzi Mukesi1, Israel Chipare4, Sylvester Moyo4
1MSc, Lecturer, Faculty of Health and Applied Science, Namibia University of Science and Technology, Windhoek, Namibia.
2BSc, Graduate, Faculty of Health and Applied Science, Namibia University of Science and Technology, Windhoek, Namibia.
3BSc, Technical Head, Namibia Blood Transfusion Service, Windhoek, Namibia.
4PhD, Director, Faculty of Health and Applied Science, Namibia University of Science and Technology, Windhoek, Namibia.

Article ID: 100027IJBTIMG2016
doi:10.5348/ijbti-2016-27-OA-7


Address correspondence to:
Martin Gonzo
Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences
Namibia University of science and Technology
P. Bag 13388, Windhoek
Namibia

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How to cite this article
Gonzo M, Shuuveni A, Mukesi M, Chipare I, Moyo S. Assessment of donor deferral rates and deferral reasons at the Namibia blood transfusion services. Int J Blood Transfus Immunohematol 2016;5:37–43.


Abstract
Aims: Despite the need to recruit and retain more blood donors, some are deferred from donating to ensure their safety and that of recipients is maintained. Examination of donor deferrals provides insights into how donor procurement strategies can be improved. Provision of safe and adequate supply of blood products is a major public health issue globally. As a result provision of safe blood should be ensured through proper donation procedures and safe transfusion. To assess the donor deferral rates and reasons for deferral among donors at Namibia blood transfusion services (NAMBTS) from 01st April 2012 to 31st March 2015.
Methods: A retrospective study was conducted by reviewing the deferred donor records from 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2015.
Results: Out of 50,074 prospective donors, 4302 (8.6%) donors were deferred. The deferral rates for females and males were 74.0% and 26.0%, respectively. Of the deferred donors 80.8% were new donors and 19.2% were repeat donors. Common deferral reasons included low hemoglobin levels (45.0%), pregnancy and breast feeding (13.7%) and being on medication (13.6%). Being on medication accounted for high deferral rate (24.0%) among male donors while in female donors, low hemoglobin levels caused high (53.0%) deferral rate.
Conclusion: The deferral of donors has a negative impact on donor retention as deferred donors are less likely to return. Studying the profile of differed donors revealed that anemia is a major contributing factor and this is more pronounced in females. It may be pertinent to address the issue of anemia by educating the donor population on ways to enhance erythropoietic activity.

Keywords: Anemia, Blood transfusion, Donor deferral, Donor retention


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Author Contributions:
Martin Gonzo – Conception and design, Analysis and interpretation of data, Drafting the article, Critical revision of the article, Final approval of the version to be published
Aili Shuuveni – Acquisition of data, Analysis and interpretation of data, Critical revision of the article, Final approval of the version to be published
Munyaradzi Mukesi – Conception and design, Analysis and interpretation of data, Critical revision of the article, Final approval of the version to be published
Israel Chipare – Conception and design, Acquisition of data, Critical revision of the article, Final approval of the version to be published
Sylvester R. Moyo – Analysis and interpretation of data, Critical revision of the article, Final approval of the version to be published
Guarantor of submission
The corresponding author is the guarantor of submission.
Source of support
None
Conflict of interest
Authors declare no conflict of interest.
Copyright
© 2016 Martin Gonzo et al. This article is distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original author(s) and original publisher are properly credited. Please see the copyright policy on the journal website for more information.