Die Rekrutierung von Erstblutspendern ist abhängig von der Altersgruppe
Reinhard Henschler (Leipzig / DE), Janina Sommermeyer (Leipzig / DE), Sigunde Schlißke (Leipzig / DE), Anja Grießer (Leipzig / DE), Raymund Buhmann (Leipzig / DE)
The efficiency to recruit first time donors is one of the key steering parameters to strengthen the blood donor repertoire. Current challenges include an ageing population, migration flows and differential use of communication tools by different social and age groups. We aimed to follow the dynamics of first time donor (FTD) recruitment to whole blood donation in our blood service (ca. 50% in-house collections and 50% outside/mobile collections) in the period January 1, 2019 until December 31, 2023.
Structured Query Language was used to extract data from our database (PC-Blut, MSSE, Schwäbisch Hall, Germany). Donors were contacted through printed invitations, through our telephone call center, via E-Mail or through an Instagram account.
In the oberservation period, the number of FTDs in our blood center increased from 1887 in 2019 to 2108 in 2023, i.e. by 11.7%, representing an increase of whole blood first time donations from 7.1% (2019) to 8.8% (2023) of total donations. Only in 2020, an outlier was registered with 9.2%. Although we continuously increased the use of our call center and E-Mail, the relative share of FTD in the age group 18-29 years dropped from 58.1% (2019) to 54.1% (2023) with the exception of 2020, when 61% were in the 18-29 year age group. The relative contributions by the 30-39y age group remained relatively constant (21.6 and 21.2% respectively in 2019 and 2023). In contrast, the relative contribution of FTDs in all other groups increased between 2019 and 2023 (40-49y: 10.1 to 12.0%; 50-59y: 8.1 to 9.2%; 60-69y: 2.1 to 3.3%).
Our advertising and invitation system was able to efficiently increase both the total numbers and the percentage of first time whole blood donors. Whereas in the COVID year 2020, FTDs aged 18-29 was the most responsive age group, in all other years donations from the age group 18-29 showed a decrease, whereas FTDs aged 40 years and above steadily increased. These data have implications for recruitment strategies of new blood donors.
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