[Analysis of donor self exclusion in repeat blood donors]

A confidential self-exclusion (self-exclusion means that the donor doesn't want his blood to be used for transfusion purposes) questionnaire was given during 12 months to 19,108 periodical blood donors in the College of Medicine in Hannover. 237 donors stated that their blood was not to be used for transfusion purposes. 70% of them were males, 30% females. 53% of these self-exclusion donors were between 21 and 30 years old. Among these self-exclusion donor, all the HIV-antibody-test showed negative results. The blood units from these donors were destroyed. The financial loss was DM 48,000. From among donors who thrice wished self-exclusion, one third declared promiscuity as the motive for self-exclusion, one third did not understand the questionnaire and one third could not or did not want to explain the self-exclusion. The question about the efficiency of the confidential donor self-exclusion process may be answered positively compared to the results of Nusbacher's study, which evaluated five times as many blood donations.