Analysis of Blood Donor Deferral Patterns and their Underlying Causes in a Multispeciality Hospital in Guwahati, Assam

Introduction: Blood and blood components play an indispensable role in the healthcare sector. But one of the major challenges is the appropriate selection of a healthy blood donor. A standard and stringent selection criterion ensures that only healthy blood donors are allowed for donation to prevent transfusion of any transfusion transmitted infections into the recipient. Identification of the various reasons behind donor deferral will help the healthcare workers in spreading awareness among the general population regarding safe blood donation practices. Methodology: The current study was a Descriptive study that was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in Guwahati, Assam. Data was collected from all the prospective donors who came in the blood centre of our 155 bedded super speciality hospital. The period of study was from May to Oct 2024. Census sampling was done to collect data. Results: In total of 944 people registered for blood donation. 46 interested donors were disqualified from blood donation. In our study, majority of the registered donors belonged to Male gender (902/944; 95.5%). The rate of deferral rate among all the registered donors was 4.87%. the most common reason during the study came out to be due to low haemoglobin (Hb<12.5g/dl) consisting of 60.8%. Conclusion: From the current study it can be concluded that it is very essential to devise effective strategies which will help to increase the awareness regarding voluntary blood donation. Identification of various causes behind donor deferrals will help in preparation of effective strategies for voluntary donation drives. Working against the reasons behind temporary deferral will significantly improve the donor pool.