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Postdonation information (PDI) occurs when a donor fails to report a risk that would have resulted in deferral, but at some subsequent point is disclosed. Donors' perspectives on and perceived reasons for their PDIs have not been previously studied.A qualitative interview study was conducted with PDI, appropriately deferred (and not PDI), and accepted donors from the six REDS-II blood centers. Telephone interviews were conducted with donors using semistructured discussion guides after their most recent donation or donation attempt. Salient themes were identified within and across the three donor categories using interview recordings and notes.Sixty-six donors were interviewed (35 PDIs, 21 appropriately deferred, and 10 accepted). Cases could be grouped into one of three broad clusters according to the apparent primary reason for the PDI event: perceived changes in rules or application of more intensive screening procedures at this visit versus prior visit(s), issues of recall or interpretation of a question, and discrepancies in recollections of timing.While descriptive and demographic information exists on the numbers and types of PDI events and donors, there has never been a qualitative study exploring donation experiences and possible reasons for their PDIs. This exploratory study based on semistructured interviews of donors identified several potentially actionable areas including the need for screeners to clarify the meaning of and answers to certain questions and helping donors accurately remember the details and dates of deferrable activities.

This study investigated the effect of blood donation environment, fixed or mobile with differing sponsor types, on donation return time.Data from 2006 through 2009 at six US blood centers participating in the Retrovirus Epidemiology Donor Study-II (REDS-II) were used for analysis. Descriptive statistics stratified by whole blood (WB), plateletpheresis (PP), and double red blood cell (R2) donations were obtained for fixed and mobile locations, including median number of donations and median interdonation interval. A survival analysis estimated median return time at fixed and mobile sites, while controlling for censored return times, demographics, blood center, and mandatory recovery times.Two-thirds (67.9%) of WB donations were made at mobile sites, 97.4% of PP donations were made at fixed sites, and R2 donations were equally distributed between fixed and mobile locations. For donations at fixed sites only or alternating between fixed and mobile sites, the highest median numbers of donations were nine and eight, respectively, and the shortest model-adjusted median return times (controlling for mandatory eligibility times of 56 and 112 days) were 36 and 30 days for WB and R2 donations, respectively. For PP donations, the shortest model-adjusted median return time was 23 days at a fixed location and the longest was 693 days at community locations.WB, PP, and R2 donors with the shortest time between donations were associated with fixed locations and those alternating between fixed and mobile locations, even after controlling for differing mandatory recovery times for the different blood donation procedures.

More than 66,000 blood donors are deferred annually in the United States due to travel to malaria-endemic areas of Mexico. Mexico accounts for the largest share of malaria travel deferrals, yet it has extremely low risk for malaria transmission throughout most of its national territory, suggesting a suboptimal balance between blood safety and availability. This study sought to determine whether donor deferral requirements might be relaxed for parts of Mexico without compromising blood safety.Travel destination was recorded from a representative sample of presenting blood donors deferred for malaria travel from six blood centers during 2006. We imputed to these donors reporting Mexican travel a risk for acquiring malaria equivalent to Mexican residents in the destination location, adjusted for length of stay. We extrapolated these results to the overall US blood donor population.Risk for malaria in Mexico varies significantly across endemic areas and is greatest in areas infrequently visited by study donors. More than 70% of blood donor deferrals were triggered by travel to the state of Quintana Roo on the Yucatán Peninsula, an area of very low malaria transmission. Eliminating the travel deferral requirement for all areas except the state of Oaxaca might result in the recovery of almost 65,000 blood donors annually at risk of approximately one contaminated unit collected every 20 years.Deferral requirements should be relaxed for presenting donors who traveled to areas within Mexico that confer exceptionally small risks for malaria, such as Quintana Roo.