The safety of blood donation by elderly blood donors

BACKGROUND  Due to the ageing population, blood donation by the elderly is necessary to maintain blood supply. We initiated a prospective study, to assess whether there is an increased risk of donor reactions in elderly donors. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS  In this prospective study, regular donors aged from 66 to 68 and 69 to 71 years were invited to continue blood donation on mobile collection sites of the German Red Cross Blood Service West. A control group (50-52 years) was established. Admission of donors in all groups followed the German national guidelines for blood donation. Donor deferrals and all kinds of donor reactions during donation (on-site) and in the 48 h following donation (off-site) were monitored. RESULTS  A total of 64 260 valid cases were entered in the study. Donor deferrals increased with age from 1·12% in the control group up to 8·74 in female donors aged 69-71 years. Adverse reactions to blood donation were rare with an overall reaction rate of 0·63% (0·05% on-site; 0·58% off-site). Off-site reactions significantly decreased with increasing age. The relative risk (RR) for adverse reactions in elderly donors compared to the control group (50-52 years) was slightly increased for on-site reactions in the 69- to 71-year-old donors (RR 1·0309; 95% CI 1·0292-1·0325). In all other comparisons, the RR for adverse reactions was distinctively lower in elderly donors (RR 0·3785 - 0·7778). CONCLUSIONS  Our data confirm that elderly regular blood donors may safely continue blood donation at least to the age of 71. Based on these data, we increased the upper age limit.