TY - JOUR
T1 - Cardiovascular risk in 159 934 frequent blood donors while addressing the healthy donor effect
AU - Peffer, Karlijnz
AU - den Heijer, Martin
AU - de Kort, Wim L. A. M.
AU - Verbeek, André L. M.
AU - Atsma, Femke
PY - 2019/8/1
Y1 - 2019/8/1
N2 - Objective: To investigate whether regular blood donation decreases cardiovascular risk. Methods: All 159 934 Dutch whole-blood donors with an active donation career of at least 10 years were categorised into sex-specific donation tertiles based on the number of donations during this 10-year qualification period. Cardiovascular endpoints were based on hospital discharge diagnoses and death certificates from Dutch Hospital Data and Statistics Netherlands and occurring after the 10-year qualification period. Cox regression was used to estimate the age-adjusted and starting year-adjusted hazard rate ratio (HRR). Results: Female high-frequency blood donors had a reduced cardiovascular morbidity (HRR=0.91, 95% CI 0.85 to 0.98) compared with low-frequency blood donors. No effect was observed in men (HRR=1.00, 95% CI 0.95 to 1.05). To rule out a residual healthy donor effect (HDE), additional sensitivity analyses using a 5-year qualification period were conducted. The results supported the absence of a residual HDE. Conclusions: This study showed a protective effect of long-term, high-frequency blood donation against cardiovascular disease. This effect was only observed in women and not in men.
AB - Objective: To investigate whether regular blood donation decreases cardiovascular risk. Methods: All 159 934 Dutch whole-blood donors with an active donation career of at least 10 years were categorised into sex-specific donation tertiles based on the number of donations during this 10-year qualification period. Cardiovascular endpoints were based on hospital discharge diagnoses and death certificates from Dutch Hospital Data and Statistics Netherlands and occurring after the 10-year qualification period. Cox regression was used to estimate the age-adjusted and starting year-adjusted hazard rate ratio (HRR). Results: Female high-frequency blood donors had a reduced cardiovascular morbidity (HRR=0.91, 95% CI 0.85 to 0.98) compared with low-frequency blood donors. No effect was observed in men (HRR=1.00, 95% CI 0.95 to 1.05). To rule out a residual healthy donor effect (HDE), additional sensitivity analyses using a 5-year qualification period were conducted. The results supported the absence of a residual HDE. Conclusions: This study showed a protective effect of long-term, high-frequency blood donation against cardiovascular disease. This effect was only observed in women and not in men.
KW - blood donors
KW - cardiac risk factors and prevention
KW - cardiovascular diseases
KW - epidemiology
KW - translational cardiovascular medicine
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85063008768&origin=inward
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30872386
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2018-314138
DO - https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2018-314138
M3 - Article
C2 - 30872386
SN - 1355-6037
VL - 105
SP - 1260
EP - 1265
JO - Heart
JF - Heart
IS - 16
ER -