Purpose: The purpose of the study was to select a high-risk group of
repeat blood donors and to prepare a plan for providing them by
evaluating the usefulness of iron supplements, and eventually to protect
the health of repeat blood donors and secure ...
Purpose: The purpose of the study was to select a high-risk group of
repeat blood donors and to prepare a plan for providing them by
evaluating the usefulness of iron supplements, and eventually to protect
the health of repeat blood donors and secure a healthy donor groups.
Methods: Repeat blood donors with donation of whole blood more than
3 times within the previous year were selected as high-risk groups
with potential iron deficiency. They have been provided an iron
supplements for 3 months, checked up hemoglobin and ferritin levels
once a month for 6 months. The effectiveness of iron supplements in
high-risk groups was analyzed by analyzing changes in hemoglobin and
ferritin levels between the initial levels and monthly.
Results: At the time of recruitments, the average 50.6% (40% of men
and 65.7% of women, respectively) of participants had ferritin levels of
less than 15 ng/mL, the WHO iron deficiency standard. After taking 3
months, the results decreased to 10.8% (8.8% of men and 13.8% of
women). The hemoglobin and ferritin levels increased significantly after
taking iron supplements for 3 months & especially after 2 months, ferritin
showed significant increases in both men and women.
Conclusion: Taking Iron supplements increased the recovery rate of
storage iron and hemoglobin levels after blood donation & confirmed
the usefulness of taking iron supplements as a health functional food
among the iron deficiency group. While taking iron supplement was
considered the most realistic way to prevent iron deficiency in repeat
blood donors, it can cause unintended side effects. Therefore, it is
considered that iron supplements use should be applied selectively to
repeat blood donors with potential iron deficiency after conducting ferritin
tests.