Investigation on voluntary blood donation in Guangzhou (1998-2009)

Objective To analyze the voluntary blood donation program in Guangzhou,and to promote the development of voluntary blood donation.Methods Data from the Guangzhou Blood Center(October 1,1998-December 31,2009) were analyzed.These included the age,gender,the source of blood donation(from organizations or individuals),blood donation sites(at the center or mobile units),and the situation of blood collection in the main mobile blood collection stations.Results There was a significant difference in the number of male and female donors(P0.001).There was more male blood donors donating 400 ml of blood at one time than the female donors(P0.001).Most of the voluntary blood donors are in the age group of 25.The proportion of male and female are both over 30.00%.84.31% of the donors were in the age group of 18～39.77.6% of donors donated blood for only one time in 10 years,and 0.35% of donors had a history of 10 times donation in 10 years.There was a rapidly increase in the number of donation through the mobile units.Between 1998 and 2008,the ratio between using the blood donation centers and mobile units was 1:0.95.In 2009,this ratio was 1:1.178.Conclusion Most of the blood donors are in the youth groups.Activity on the use of the mobile blood donation units should be promoted.Consolidating the recruitment of donors from various organization may help to maintain the source of blood supply.