Directed Donations: An Underutilized Blood Donor Resource

One hundred sixty directed donors were sent questionnaires inquiring about their motivations, prior donation history, and future donation plans. One hundred two donors responded. The reasons given for donating included concerns about transfusion-transmitted AIDS (55%) or hepatitis (36%), availability of blood (59%), and optimal blood type match (44%). Of the 44% who were first-time donors, 58% planned to make future nondirected donations. Of the 56% non-first-time donors, 91% planned to continue to make general donations. Twenty-nine percent of the non-first-time donors had not donated in over three years and were thus “reentered” into the donor pool. From this study, we concluded that directed donors are a valuable donor resource that can help alleviate the donor loss that will occur as a result of surrogate testing for non-A, non-B viral hepatitis.