IRON DEFICIENCY STATUS IN FIRST TIME, REPLACEMENT, VOLUNTARY AND REGULAR MALE BLOOD DONORS AT TERTIARY CARE HOSPITALS OF PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN

OBJECTIVES: To determine iron deficiency in first time, replacement, voluntary and regular male blood donors and to detect pre-clinical iron deficiency in blood donors at tertiary care hospitals of Peshawar, Pakistan by assessing serum ferritin levels. METHODS: In this cross-sectional descriptive study 152 male blood donors from North West General Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, Pakistan were recruited from 1st December, 2012 to 30th May, 2013. Donors were divided into regular and non-regular (1st time, replacement and voluntary) groups based on number of donations in the past. Quantitative determination of serum ferritin levels was performed by Chemiluminescence immunoassay. Serum ferritin level 30μg/L were taken as normal, 15-30μg/L were reduced and 15μg/L were iron deficiency. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics in SPSS version 20. RESULTS: Out of 23 regular donors, 17 (73.9%) while out of 129 non regular donors, 13 (10.1%) developed iron deficiency. The mean number of donations for all donors was 2.8±2.6 (range 0-20). Among non-regular blood donors, 09% 1st time donors, 9.3% replacement donors and 15.8% voluntary donors had iron deficiency. Iron deficiency was recorded in 19.7% of the whole study sample. Statistically significant inverse relationship existed between number of donations and serum ferritin levels (r=-0.193, p 0.017). Also a weak positive relationship between time since last donation (months) and serum ferritin levels (r=0.109, p 0.18). CONCLUSION: Regular blood donations in males cause serious iron deficiency. Pre-donation serum ferritin analysis identifies and prevents iron deficiency in both regular and non-regular blood donors.