Low ferritin levels appear to be associated with worsened health in male repeat blood donors

Abstract

Background and objectives Frequent blood donation depletes iron stores of blood donors. Iron depletion may lead to anaemia, but the health effects of iron depletion without anaemia in healthy blood donors are not well understood. We studied in the FinDonor cohort whether worsening of self‐rated health of blood donors during the study period was associated with biomarkers for iron levels or other self‐reported changes in lifestyle. Materials and methods We included 1416 participants from the cohort who answered an 89‐item questionnaire on their health and lifestyle during their enrolment visit and again at the end of the study. We performed multivariate logistic regression to test if blood donation‐related factors affected the probability of reporting worsened health. To set these findings into a more holistic context of health, we subsequently analysed all other questionnaire items with a data‐driven exploratory analysis. Results We found that donation frequency in men and post‐menopausal women and ferritin level only in men was associated negatively with worsened health between questionnaires. In the exploratory analysis, stable physical condition was the only questionnaire item that was associated negatively with worsened health in both women and men. Conclusion Our results suggest that low ferritin level is associated with worsened health even in non‐anaemic repeat donors, although we find that when health is analysed more holistically, ferritin and other factors primarily related to blood donation lose their importance.

Donor variation in stored platelets: Higher metabolic rates of platelets are associated with mean platelet volume, activation and donor health

“…1 That one of the healthrelated issues may be (donation-induced) low ferritin levels and iron deficiency, has been overlooked until now. Low ferritin levels are associated with worse health 20 and may increase PLT production which causes higher IPF and MPV. 10,11 The observation that metabolic rates of stored PLTs are associated with MPV on the one hand and donor health on the other hand, is supported by others who found a significantly increased MPV in patients suffering from obesity, 21 Type 2 diabetes 22 or coronary artery disease.…”

Iron status of blood donors

“…The authors reported 7% of adverse reactions were attributable to iron deficiency-related factors, but it is not evident they distinguished iron-related vs. hemoglobin-related effects. Illustrating the methodological challenges detailed by Spencer et al [51 ▪ ], Finnish investigators reported an association between low ferritin and worsening health but with substantial loss to follow-up and significant risk of selection bias [54 ▪ ]. Iron and hemoglobin affect not just donor health but also retention.…”