Why do some apheresis donors donate blood just once?

More knowledge about the reasons for non-return of blood donors (BD) would enable blood donation services (BDS) to improve the efficacy of recruitment and retention programmes. We interviewed returning (RBD) and non-returning apheresis BDs (NRBD) of our university hospital-based BDS.

A questionnaire was sent to 1218 individuals who passed the initial health check with no more than one subsequent blood donation. A similar questionnaire was answered by 235 randomly incoming RBDs. We asked for age, sex, profession, education level, motives to donate blood and, if applicable, reasons for non-return. These data were compared between NRBDs and RBDs and were analysed in relationship to the reasons for non-return.

We received 267 answered questionnaires (21.9%). As 32 individuals indicated that they had been permanently deferred and 47 BDs had donated blood elsewhere, 188 NRBDs remained for further analysis. We found more women than men among NRBDs. Medical professions were less likely to return than students and trainees. Individuals motivated by personal experience, remuneration or a free health check were more likely to return than others. Whereas logistic reasons were of highest relevance for non-return in general, women indicated anxiety of blood donation as reason for non-return more often than men.

Reducing women's anxiety of blood donation, reminding medical professions more intensively on blood donation and appealing to personal experience or a free health check may be the most promising approaches to increase BDs' return rates.