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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2022 Aug 17;17(8):e0272854.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272854. eCollection 2022.

Cost-effectiveness of alternative minimum recall intervals between whole blood donations

Zia Sadique  1 , Sarah Willis  1 , Kaat De Corte  1 , Mark Pennington  1   2 , Carmel Moore  3   4 , Stephen Kaptoge  3 , Emanuele Di Angelantonio  3 , Gail Miflin  5 , David J Roberts  3   5   6 , Richard Grieve  1
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Cost-effectiveness of alternative minimum recall intervals between whole blood donations

Zia Sadique et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: The INTERVAL trial showed shorter inter-donation intervals could safely increase the frequency of whole-blood donation. We extended the INTERVAL trial to consider the relative cost-effectiveness of reduced inter-donation intervals.

Methods: Our within-trial cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) used data from 44,863 whole-blood donors randomly assigned to 12, 10 or 8 week (males), and 16, 14 or 12 week inter-donation intervals (females). The CEA analysed the number of whole-blood donations, deferrals including low- haemoglobin deferrals, and donors' health-related quality of life (QoL) to report costs and cost-effectiveness over two years.

Findings: The mean number of blood donation visits over two years was higher for the reduced interval strategies, for males (7.76, 6.60 and 5.68 average donations in the 8-, 10- and 12- week arms) and for females (5.10, 4.60 and 4.01 donations in the 12-, 14- and 16- week arms). For males, the average rate of deferral for low haemoglobin per session attended, was 5.71% (8- week arm), 3.73% (10- week), and 2.55% (12- week), and for females the rates were: 7.92% (12-week), 6.63% (14- week), and 5.05% (16- week). Donors' QoL was similar across strategies, although self-reported symptoms were increased with shorter donation intervals. The shorter interval strategies increased average cost, with incremental cost-effectiveness ratios of £9.51 (95% CI 9.33 to 9.69) per additional whole-blood donation for the 8- versus 12- week interval for males, and £10.17 (95% CI 9.80 to 10.54) for the 12- versus 16- week interval arm for females.

Conclusions: Over two years, reducing the minimum donation interval could provide additional units of whole-blood at a small additional cost, including for those donor subgroups whose blood type is in relatively high demand. However, the significance of self-reported symptoms needs to be investigated further before these policies are expanded.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Mean (95% CI) incremental blood donations over two-year follow-up period by subgroup.
a) Male b) Female.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Mean (95% CI) incremental costs over two-year follow-up period by subgroup.
a) Male b) Female.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Mean (95% CI) incremental cost-effectiveness ratios over two-year follow-up period by subgroup.
a) Male b) Female.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Sensitivity analysis that reports the mean (95% CI) incremental cost-effectiveness ratios over two-year follow-up period according to alternative assumptions compared to the base case.
a) Male b) Female.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. NHSBT. Extra safety measures after coronavirus uncertainty causes drop in donations 2020 [cited 2020 14/06/2020]. Available from: https://www.blood.co.uk/news-and-campaigns/news-and-statements/extra-saf....

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