How do we decide how representative our donors are for public health surveillance?
Transfusion
; 62(12): 2431-2437, 2022 Dec.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2053071
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Surveillance of blood donors is fundamental to safety of the blood supply. Such data can also be useful for public health policy but tend to be underutilized. When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, blood centers around the world measured blood donor SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence to inform public health policy. There is now a movement toward blood centers becoming more involved in public health research and surveillance post-pandemic. However, blood donors are a healthy population and not representative of all segments of the general population. In this article, we explain how blood centers can evaluate their donor base to understand which part of the general population they are representative of. STUDY DESIGN ANDMETHODS:
Methodologic approaches for evaluating samples relative to the target population were reviewed. Blood donor data that are available to most blood centers were identified and application to assess representativeness of blood donors was evaluated.RESULTS:
Key aspects of blood donor data to compare with general population data include donor selection criteria, health indicators, geography, and demographics. In some cases, statistical adjustment can improve representativeness.DISCUSSION:
Comparing key blood donor data with corresponding general population data can define the subset of the general population for which a particular blood center's donors may be representative of. We suggest that donors are an ideal convenience population for surveillance of infectious agents which are frequently asymptomatic and main routes of transmission are not deferrable, for studying the natural history of disease in an initially well population, and for vaccination serology surveillance.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Case report
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Vaccines
Language:
English
Journal:
Transfusion
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Trf.17140
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