Analysis of donor characteristics in a Tertiary Hospital Blood Center in Indonesia

Blood donors constitute the main component of blood transfusion system. Changes over time can affect the demographic characteristics of the blood donor population. Voluntary donors tend to be safer than replacement donors in terms of TTIs transmission risks. This study aims to analyze the characteristics of voluntary and replacement blood donors in Dr. Sardjito Hospital Blood Center. This retrospective study analyzed the data of whole blood donors from January 2017 to May 2020. The number of donations was calculated as cumulative number based on the donor data bases. Data were presented as median (minimum-maximum) and proportion. Analysis was conducted using the Mann-Whitney U and chi-square tests. There were 54,152 blood donors during the study period, consisted of 47,525 (87.8%) voluntary donors and 6,627 (12.2%) replacement donors. Most of the donors were male, with higher proportion in replacement donors (p 0.001). Voluntary donors tended to be younger than replacement ones [30(17-77) years and 35(17-70) years, respectively] (p 0.001). Voluntary donors gave blood more frequently (p 0.001). The proportion of donation number in two groups showed significantly different (p 0.001). The most donated blood types were O, D positive. There was an increasing trend in the monthly number of bloods donated from 2017 to 2019, but a decreasing trend in 2020. The decrease of blood donation during 2020, may be related to COVID-19 pandemic.