Estimating the probability of a blood donation adverse event based on 1000 interviewed whole-blood donors

Background: Estimating the probability that a donor will have or not have an adverse event is useful for staff knowledge to give blood donors reassurance upon request.

Study design and methods: One-thousand donors from the general donor pool were interviewed for seven potential adverse events 3 weeks after a 525-mL whole-blood phlebotomy. The four most common adverse events were bruise (22.7%), sore arm (10.0%), fatigue (7.8%), and donor reaction (7.0%). A stepwise logistic regression analysis was performed based on five donor characteristics that were studied: age, weight, sex, race, and first-time donor status. The contribution of each significant or marginally significant factor to each adverse event was quantified.

Results: For donor reaction, weight (p

Conclusion: Based on the derived formulas and with the use of a spreadsheet, data can be entered and the probability that a donor will have (or not have) a donor reaction, fatigue, sore arm, or bruise can be estimated.