Does Iron Deficiency in Blood Donors Affect Quality of Blood?

About five million benevolent volunteers donate blood regularly in the United States, making up most of the blood supply. It is well recognized that frequent blood donation causes iron deficiency in donors, raising worries that the practice may not only lower the quality of donated blood but also negatively impact the health and quality of life of blood donors. Fortunately, a recent study indicated that donor iron insufficiency had no negative consequences on the safety of regular blood donors or the quality of donated blood. Iron is a dietary component that is necessary for red blood cells to transport oxygen throughout the body. Anemia (a lack of red blood cells) and its accompanying symptoms, such as exhaustion, melancholy and brain fog, can result from an iron deficiency. Few studies have examined the consequences on donor health or the quality of donated blood, even though a 2012 study indicated that approximately 35% of regular blood donors experience iron deficiency following many blood donations.

“The results of our study offer robust evidence that the existing criteria for blood donation both preserve the quality of the blood supply and protect the wellbeing of adults who are frequent blood donors,” said Eldad A. Hod, MD, an associate professor of pathology and cell biology at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center in New York, and the study’s first author.

More People Should Donate Blood

Dr Hod continued by saying that he hoped the study's findings will inspire more individuals to donate blood. 2019 research found that less than 6% of Americans over the age of 18 had donated blood in the year prior. He claimed that more donors would increase the blood supply and lessen the reliance on frequent donors. The COVID-19 pandemic has made an already severe paucity of donated blood in the United States worse, causing planned blood transfusions to be postponed and surgeries to be postponed owing to a lack of blood products.

983 frequent blood donors, aged 18 to 75, were tested as part of the Donor Iron Deficiency Study. Ultimately, 79 of the 110 iron-deficient but not anemic donors were randomized. Donors who were pregnant, anemic, or in danger of anaphylactic shock from iron treatment (such as those with severe allergies) were not allowed to give.

All donors gave one standard unit of blood after being screened to ensure their eligibility. Additionally, these donors filled out surveys regarding their quality of life, physical and mental health and cognitive function, including tests of memory, focus and information processing.

About six weeks later, the participants underwent new quality of life and cognitive testing, as well as a test to see if the blood they had donated before met the FDA's (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) standards for donated blood. They were then randomly randomized to receive an intravenous infusion of either iron or a placebo after completing these tests (saline solution). Since the study was double-blinded, neither the subjects nor the study crew was aware of who had gotten the iron infusion and who had received a placebo.

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Participants were asked to come back four to six months later to provide blood once more and undergo further cognitive and quality-of-life tests. They conducted a second test six weeks following this second donation to see if the blood quality matched FDA requirements before finishing a final evaluation of the patient's quality of life and cognition. The first blood-quality test, which was conducted while all donors had low iron levels, and the second test, which was conducted after the donors had been randomly allocated to undergo therapy with intravenous iron or a placebo, were the study's primary endpoints.

Does Frequent Blood Donation Affect the Donor's Health?

“This finding is good news because it not only shows that blood donated by frequent donors remains of high quality, but also that those who donate blood regularly are not being significantly harmed by doing so,” explained Dr Hod.

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The study's findings went against Dr Hod and colleagues’ predictions that donated blood would not exceed FDA quality standards and that donors’ health would improve with more iron. While participants who got the placebo remained iron deficient and developed anemia, those who were randomly allocated to receive intravenous iron had their iron deficit treated. However, the iron-deficient donors’ donated blood nonetheless fulfilled FDA quality requirements, and their results on cognitive function tests and quality-of-life tests indicated no significant changes from those of the donors whose iron deficiency had been treated with intravenous iron at any time point.

The fact that participants under the age of 18 were not included in the study presents a constraint for its conclusions. Dr Hod estimates that 10% of all blood donors are in this age group. According to him, iron is essential for adolescent brain growth, which doesn’t finish until the mid-20s.

“We don’t know to what extent our results can be generalized to the under-18 population,” he said. “We hope to look at this age group in our next study.”

Source-Medindia