The potential impact of new donor height and weight criteria on young donor eligibility and faint or prefaint reaction rates

BACKGROUND: New criteria for young blood donors were recently developed to minimize faint reactions in this high‐risk group. The aim of this study was to determine the impact implementation of these criteria would have on collections and donor faint or prefaint reaction rates at our university blood center. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Donor history questionnaires from eight consecutive undergraduate campus blood drives were retrospectively reviewed. Height, weight, sex, and age were used to determine the number of donors potentially deferred. RESULTS: During the study period, 81% of donors were age 22 or younger (537/662) with a reaction rate of 2.4% (16/662). If these new height and weight criteria were implemented, 11.5% of our young donors would have been deferred (76/662) preventing 2 of 16 reactions. Revision of height and weight criteria with consideration for a 475‐mL collection volume would decrease deferral rates to 1.2% (8/662) with no reactions prevented. CONCLUSION: Implementation of new height and weight criteria based on a standard 525‐mL collection volume would result in a high rate of donor deferral. Revised criteria adjusted for our smaller collection volume would significantly decrease donor deferral rates. All reactions observed in young donors during our study period occurred in those predicted to have a less than 15% decrease in total blood volume after donation.