Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Oct;63 Suppl 4(Suppl 4):S8-S18.
doi: 10.1111/trf.17360. Epub 2023 Apr 18.

Continued stabilization of blood collections and transfusions in the United States: Findings from the 2021 National Blood Collection and Utilization Survey

Rebecca J Free  1 , Mathew R P Sapiano  1   2 , Joel L Chavez Ortiz  1   3 , Phylicia Stewart  1   4 , James Berger  5 , Sridhar V Basavaraju  1
Affiliations

Continued stabilization of blood collections and transfusions in the United States: Findings from the 2021 National Blood Collection and Utilization Survey

Rebecca J Free et al. Transfusion. 2023 Oct.

Abstract

Background: National Blood Collection and Utilization Surveys (NBCUS) have reported decreases in U.S. blood collections and transfusions since 2008. The declines began to stabilize in 2015-2017, with a subsequent increase in transfusions in 2019. Data from the 2021 NBCUS were analyzed to understand the current dynamics of blood collection and use in the United States.

Methods: In March 2022, all community-based (53) and hospital-based (83) blood collection centers, a randomly selected 40% of transfusing hospitals performing 100-999 annual inpatient surgeries, and all transfusing hospitals performing ≥1000 annual inpatient surgeries were sent a 2021 NBCUS survey to ascertain blood collection and transfusion data. Responses were compiled, and national estimates were calculated for the number of units of blood and blood components collected, distributed, transfused, and outdated in 2021. Weighting and imputation were applied to account for non-responses and missing data, respectively.

Results: Survey response rates were 92.5% (49/53) for community-based blood centers, 74.7% (62/83) for hospital-based blood centers, and 76.3% (2102/2754) for transfusing hospitals. Overall, 11,784,000 (95% confidence interval [CI], 11,392,000-12,177,000) whole blood and apheresis red blood cell (RBC) units were collected in 2021, a 1.7% increase from 2019; 10,764,000 (95% CI, 10,357,000-11,171,000) whole blood-derived and apheresis RBC units were transfused, a 0.8% decrease. Total platelet units distributed increased by 0.8%; platelet units transfused decreased by 3.0%; plasma units distributed increased by 16.2%; and plasma units transfused increased by 1.4%.

Discussion: The 2021 NBCUS findings demonstrate a stabilization in U.S. blood collections and transfusions, suggesting a plateau has been reached for both.

Keywords: blood donation; blood transfusion; survey.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

The authors have disclosed no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flow diagram depicting identification, sampling, non-responses, and total responses analyzed of 2021 National Blood Collection and Utilization Survey respondents. AHA, American Hospital Association.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Trends in (A) RBC distributions (i.e., units collected minus units rejected and outdated at the blood center) and transfusions and (B) RBC collections and transfusions per 1000 population, United States, from the National Blood Collection and Utilization Survey, 1992–2021. The U.S. population aged 16–64 years (18–64 years prior to 2008) was used to calculate the rate of RBC units collected per 1000 population, while the entire U.S. population was used to calculate the rate of RBC units transfused per 1000 population. This difference in denominator populations leads to an apparent wider gap observed between the lines denoting RBC collections and transfusions in (B) when compared with (A).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Goel R, Zhu X, Patel EU, Crowe EP, Ness PM, Katz LM, et al. Blood transfusion trends in the United States: national inpatient sample, 2015 to 2018. Blood Adv. 2021;5(20):4179–84. 10.1182/bloodadvances.2021005361 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chung KW, Basavaraju SV, Mu Y, van Santen KL, Haass KA, Henry R, et al. Declining blood collection and utilization in the United States. Transfusion. 2016;56:2184–92. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ellingson KD, Sapiano MRP, Haass KA, Savinkina AA, Baker ML, Chung KW, et al. Continued decline in blood collection and transfusion in the United States–2015. Transfusion. 2017;57(Suppl 2):1588–98. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jones JM, Sapiano MRP, Savinkina AA, Haass KA, Baker ML, Henry RA, et al. Slowing decline in blood collection and transfusion in the United States - 2017. Transfusion. 2020;60(Suppl 2):S1–9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jones JM, Sapiano MRP, Mowla S, Bota D, Berger JJ, Basavaraju SV. Has the trend of declining blood transfusions in the United States ended? Findings of the 2019 National Blood Collection and utilization survey. Transfusion. 2021;61:1–10. 10.1111/trf.16449 - DOI - PMC - PubMed