Long-term effects of whole blood and platelet donation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding the long-term effects of whole blood and platelet donation.
IRAS ID
133884
Contact name
Emanuele Di Angelantonio
Contact email
Research summary
The long-term aim of this research is to establish an unprecedentedly large and detailed population research platform involving blood donors enrolled with NHS Blood and Transplant whose records will be linked to a variety of electronic health data. The objective is to address a question of considerable national and international public health importance: What are the risks and benefits of repeated whole blood and platelet donation on major chronic disease outcomes, and what is the balance between them? Previous studies have been contradictory, suggesting that blood donation could either increase or reduce the risk of diabetes, certain common cancers, and cardiovascular disease. However, the quality of previous research has been inadequate, even though tens of millions of people continue to donate blood in the UK and worldwide.
Linkage of donor records to electronic health data will provide information related to cause-specific mortality and other health events, and enable us to reliably address this important question. The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) will provide support for data extraction and linkage with various data sources, by combining and matching records at individual level in a secure environment. Linkages will be initially done with Hospital Episodes Statistics, and the Office for National Statistics mortality data. However, we will also explore linkage with disease-specific registers and with primary care data.
Results from this powerful electronic health resource will enable evaluation of claims about the possible risk and benefits of frequent whole blood donation, both in relation to existing long-standing claims (e.g. cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes), more recent claims (e.g. neurodegenerative disease), un-anticipated claims that may arise in the future, either in connection with or independently of this work.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/EE/0182
Date of REC Opinion
4 Jun 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion