Rates and Reasons for Blood Donor Deferral in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Jammu Region

Background Safe blood is ensured through proper donor selection. Blood transfusion services have the responsibility to provide safe and adequate blood to the recipient. However, a large number of apparently healthy donors are unable to donate blood for various reasons. The aim of the study was to evaluate the rate and reason of blood donor deferral in Jammu region. Methods The study was retrospective, done in the SMGS Hospital Department of Transfusion Medicine Govt. Medical College, Jammu from April 2015 March 2016. Data from the records of the registered donors were collected. Results Total donors were 20708 out of which 753 (3.6 %) were deferred because of various reasons. The common reasons for deferral were low haemoglobin (41.43 %) followed by alcohol intake within 72 hours (9.96 %), medication (7.1 %), underweight (4.2 %), uncontrolled hypertension (3.8 %), fever (3.4 %), jaundice (3.2 %) and miscellaneous causes (26.8 %) which includes donors having history of epilepsy, tuberculosis, allergic diseases, previous blood transfusion within a year, dog bite, cardiovascular diseases and high risk behaviour. Conclusion We suggest them nutritional intake and iron supplementation especially females They were counselled properly and follow up was done to guide the recruitment and retention efforts.