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Meta-Analysis
. 2022 Jun;117(6):769-779.
doi: 10.1111/vox.13255. Epub 2022 Feb 15.

Impact of disasters on blood donation rates and blood safety: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Jorien Laermans  1 , Dorien O  1 , Emma Van den Bosch  2 , Emmy De Buck  1   3 , Veerle Compernolle  4   5 , Eilat Shinar  6   7   8 , Philippe Vandekerckhove  3   8   9
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Impact of disasters on blood donation rates and blood safety: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Jorien Laermans et al. Vox Sang. 2022 Jun.

Abstract

Background and objectives: Timely and adequate access to safe blood forms an integral part of universal health coverage, but it may be compromised by natural or man-made disasters. This systematic review provides an overview of the best available scientific evidence on the impact of disasters on blood donation rates and safety outcomes.

Materials and methods: Five databases (The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science and CINAHL) were searched until 27 March 2020 for (un)controlled studies investigating the impact of disasters on blood donation rates and/or safety. Risk of bias and overall certainty of the evidence were assessed using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach.

Results: Eighteen observational studies were identified, providing very low certainty of evidence (due to high risk of bias, inconsistency and/or imprecision) on the impact of natural (12 studies) and man-made/technological (6 studies) disasters. The available evidence did not enable us to form any generalizable conclusions on the impact on blood donation rates. Meta-analyses could not detect any statistically significant changes in transfusion-transmissible infection (TTI) rates [hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1/2, human T-lymphotropic virus I and II (HTLV-I/II) and syphilis] in donated blood after a disaster, either in first-time or repeat donors, although the evidence is very uncertain.

Conclusion: The very low certainty of evidence synthetized in this systematic review indicates that it is very uncertain whether there is an association between disaster occurrence and changes in TTI rates in donated blood. The currently available evidence did not allow us to draw generalizable conclusions on the impact of disasters on blood donation rates.

Keywords: blood collection; blood safety; donor health; donor motivation; transfusion-transmissible infections.

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Conflict of interest statement

J.L., D.O., E.V.d.B., E.D.B., V.C. and P.V. are employees of Belgian Red Cross‐Flanders, which is responsible for supplying adequate quantities of safe blood (components) to hospitals in Flanders and Brussels on a continuous basis and is being paid for this activity by the Ministry of Social Affairs. E.S. has no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
PRISMA study selection flow diagram
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Risk of bias in the individual studies. Review authors' judgements about each risk of bias item for each included study. formula image Low risk of bias. formula image Unclear risk of bias. formula image High risk of bias
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Forest plot on the proportion of first‐time donors before and after disasters. The proportion of first‐time donors presenting themselves to a blood bank in the aftermath of a disaster, compared to prior to the disaster. Events, number of first‐time donors; Total, total number of donors
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Meta‐analyses on transfusion‐transmissible infection marker reactivity rates before and after disasters. Meta‐analysis on (a) HBV, (b) HCV, (c) HIV‐1/2 and (d) syphilis marker reactivity rates in donated blood in the aftermath of a disaster, compared to prior to the disaster
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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