Transfusion Medicine: From Donors to Recipients; A Gender Perspective

Objectives: To screen the donors for the frequency of ABO & Rh blood groups and gender contribution in blood donation.

Subject and Methods: This retrospective observational study was carried out in the Blood bank of Qazi Hussain Ahmed Medical Complex, Nowshera from 25th April 2019 to 5th Nov 2019. A total of 279 donors were included in the study. Record was taken from available data in Blood bank of Qazi Hussain Ahmed Medical Complex Nowshera. Donors & Recipients data were also recorded from the blood issuing form. ABO and Rh blood grouping were done by agglutination method using antisera A, antisera B and antisera D. Data was analyzed using software SPSS Version 25. Descriptive statistics was used for numerical variables like Hb%, Ferritin. Frequency and percentages were used for categorical variables like gender. Spearman’s correlation was used for categories of gender in the recipients and donors.

Results: The total number of the donors was 279, about 243 donors hemoglobin was available on the record. Mean with SD of Hemoglobin of donors was 11.59 g/dl+ 1.48. Mean with SD of Hemoglobin of the recipients was 8.19 g/dl+ 1.72. The frequency of the blood Group in Donors were; O+ (155, 55.6%), A+ (51, 18.3%), AB+ (23, 8.2%), B+ (22, 7.9%), O- & A- each (10, 3.6%), and B- &AB- each (4, 1.4%). The frequency of Rh positive blood group was 89.94% (251), and Rh negative was 10.03% (28).

Out of total 272(97.5%) of the Donors were males while only 7(2.5%) were female donors. Out of the recipients 206(73.8%) were females and 73(26.2%) were males. Spearman’s correlation statistics showed that there was a mild downhill and inverse (negative) statistically significant correlation in gender groups of the donors and the recipients.

Conclusion: The frequency of "Rh-positive blood group" was (O, A, AB and B) respectively. Blood Group “O” was recorded in 55% of the donors as major Rh positive blood group in our population. Male gender is main contributor as donor while female gender as major recipient.