A Survey of Iron Status of Shirazian Blood Donors Using Ferritin in 2005

Iron deficiency anemia is an important limiting factor for the number of donations in regular donors. Limited data is available on the iron status in Iranian donors. This study was conduced to evaluate the prevalence of iron deficiency and its related factors in blood donors at Shiraz blood transfusion centre in 2005.

This descriptive study was done on all blood donors who donated their blood at Shiraz BTO in 2005. We selected 200 first time blood donors (100 female & 100 male), 200 blood donors who had history of one blood donation every year for at least 3 years and 200 blood donors who had history of 3 to 4 times blood donation per year. Then we filled out a questionnaire and measured Hb, ferretin, MCV and MCHC.

The results showed that reduction in iron stores was directly related to the number of donations. (P<0.05). In this study, 34% of female first time blood donors and 11.9% of male first time donors had decreased iron stores.34% of female first time blood donors, 47.9% of female blood donors with history of one blood donation a year and 77% of female blood donors who had history of 3 time blood donations in one year had decreased levels of iron. 11.9% of male first time blood donors, 14.5% of male blood donors who had history of one blood donation a year and 37.5% of male blood donors who had history of 3 blood donations every year had iron deficiency or iron deficiency anemia .

It seems that blood donation affects the iron status and if not compensated, it may cause complication in blood donors. The prevalence of iron deficiency in female blood donors is more who therefore require more attention. Iron store levels are more related to number of blood donations per year rather than the number of blood donations in a lifetime. Therefore, these donors as a group require more attention.