Investigating the age changes of Yazd blood donors in 2011 to 2018

Change in the age structure of the population affects many activities and processes, and most countries are expected to enter the old population phase by 2050. Today, for various reasons, the consumption of blood and blood products has increased. The aim of this study was to investigate the age change in donor population during the years 1390 to 1397 and compare it with the societychr('39')s age change algorithm to determine if the latter affects the former.

In this cross-sectional descriptive study, demographic information of 329631 blood donors from 1390 to 1397 from Blood Transfusion Software (Negareh software version 5/9) was extracted and the latest demographic information of the province was achieved using the website of the Statistics Center of Iran.

Of the population of  Yazd and Ardakan cities, 64.7% and 65.38% are within the appropriate age range for blood donation. The donor population of 18-30 years decreased by 30.7% in 2016 and 32.3% in 2018 compared with the year 2011 while other age groups almost increased. Mean age of donors in 2014 and 2017 were 44.2 and 40.05 years, respectively.

Due to the aging population, and the reduction of the population under the age of 30, it is necessary to take effective programs to maintain and attract 18-30 year old population for blood donation.