Risk of illness, hospitalization and death in a cohort of blood donors in Italy

Abstract

Objective:

The aim of this study was to determine whether blood donors (BDs), compared with non blood donors (nBDs), present significant differences in risk of illness, hospitalization and death.

Methods:

All subjects included in the database of the Association of Voluntary Italian Blood Donors of Ferrara entered the study. The analysis only included residents who donated at least once. For each BD, four age- and sex-matched non-donor controls were selected from the master archive of the Province of Ferrara. Then, all hospitalizations of BDs and controls from January 2005 to December 2010 were extracted from the hospital admission and discharge database of the region.

Results:

During the considered period, 26,140 hospital admissions in BDs and 98,685 in controls were recorded; 11,862 individual BDs and 43,138 nBDs. Compared with controls, BDs were characterized by older age, lower average number of admissions and diagnoses, Charlson comorbidity index score, shorter hospital length-of-stay (LOS), lower mortality rates and higher age at death. Age at death was significantly higher for BDs with longer duration and higher number of donations. In particular, blood donation was not related to an increased risk of malignancies. The main limitation of this study is potential selection bias (i.e. a healthy donor effect). Matching with the control population also has its limitations.

Conclusions:

This study confirms that BDs have a lower risk of hospitalization, and, more specifically, do not have an increased risk of malignancies, leukemias, lymphomas and myeloma.

Keywords::

• Blood donation
• Hospitalization
• Mortality
• Risk of illness

Transparency

Declaration of funding

The authors received no funding in preparation of this manuscript. This study was supported, in part, by the Italian Civil Service, and by a scientific grant from the University of Ferrara (FAR – Fondo Ateneo Ricerca), Prof. Roberto Manfredini.

Declaration of financial/other relationships

D.P.M. has disclosed that he is the editor-in-Chief of CMRO but has no significant relationships with or financial interests in any commercial companies related to this study or article. M.G., S.V., M.C., R.R., and R.M. have disclosed that they have no significant relationships with or financial interests in any commercial companies related to this study or article.

CMRO peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr Florio Ghinelli MD and the AVIS Ferrara Board, Mrs Chiara Gallerani and Mrs Agata Fogli for their valuable collaboration during the period on the Italian Civil Service.