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- Title
Impact of informing donors of low ferritin results.
- Authors
Goldman, Mindy; Uzicanin, Samra; Scalia, Jenna; Scalia, Vito; O'Brien, Sheila F.
- Abstract
<bold>Background: </bold>Informing donors of their ferritin status is one possible mitigating strategy to reduce iron deficiency in donors.<bold>Study Design and Methods: </bold>We evaluated the impact of informing donors of their ferritin status on their donation frequency, understanding of iron needs, and actions to improve iron intake 2 years after their inclusion in a prospective observational cohort study.<bold>Results: </bold>Informing donors of low ferritin results decreased return rate in first-time and repeat donors, and the median number of donations declined from three to two donations/year in returning donors with low ferritin on index donation compared to an increase from 1.5 to 2.5 donations/year in donors with normal ferritin. An electronic questionnaire demonstrated that approximately 60% of low ferritin donors saw their primary medical practitioner, and half of this group started iron. Qualitative interviews revealed suboptimal understanding of iron needs and poor compliance with iron supplementation.<bold>Conclusion: </bold>Providing donors with results of ferritin testing may reduce return rates and donation frequency in the 2 years after testing. Simply providing donors with ferritin results and an information sheet is often inadequate to improve donors' understanding of iron needs and may not lead to a substantive increase in iron intake over time.
- Subjects
BLOOD donors; FERRITIN; CARRIER proteins; IRON in the body; IRON proteins; IRON; LONGITUDINAL method
- Publication
Transfusion, 2016, Vol 56, Issue 9, p2193
- ISSN
0041-1132
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1111/trf.13691