Blood donor deferrals by reason and gender U.S. 2019

In 2019, there were an estimated 844,000 blood donor deferrals among males in the United States. The most common reason for donor deferral among both males and females was low hemoglobin/hematocrit. This graph shows the estimated number of blood donor deferrals in the United States in 2019, by reason and gender.

Number of blood donor deferrals in the United States in 2019, by reason and gender (in 1,000s)

Characteristic	Males	Females
Low hemoglobin/hematocrit*	205	861
Prescription drug use	37	35
Pulse and/or blood pressure	134	144
Other medical reasons**	84	108
High-risk behavior, MSM only***	6	1
High-risk behavior, all other behaviors	9	6
Travel^	87	82
Tattoo/piercing	17	46
Other non-medical reasons	196	333
Total deferrals	844	1,628

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Release date

August 2021

More information

Region

United States

Survey time period

2019

Method of interview

Online omnibus survey

Supplementary notes

Data is from the National Blood Collection and Utilization Survey (NBCUS).
The 2019 NBCUS "was distributed to all US blood collection centers, all hospitals performing ≥1000 surgeries annually, and a 40% random sample of hospitals performing 100–999 surgeries annually. The response rates for the 2019 NBCUS were 94.3%(50/53) for community-based blood collection facilities, 84% (76/90) for hospital-based blood collection facilities, and 76% (2140/2808) for transfusing hospitals."
* Donors deferred for low hemoglobin included those that do not meet the current FDA blood hemoglobin level requirements for blood donation.
** Other medical reasons may include the use of medications on the medication deferral list, growth hormone from human pituitary glands, Hepatitis B Immune Globulin (HBIG), unlicensed vaccines, or presenting with physical conditions or symptoms that do not qualify a person to be a blood donor.
*** High-risk behavior deferrals include deferrals intended to reduce the risk of transmission of infectious diseases including HIV and hepatitis viruses. Examples of questions intended to identify these risks are sexual contact (men who have sex with men [MSM]) and non-medical injection drug use questions.
^ Travel deferrals are deferrals for travel to a specific region of the world.

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