International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology | April 2021 | Vol 10 | Issue 4 Page 409 International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology Kairi JK et al. Int J Basic Clin Pharmacol. 2021 Apr;10(4):409-414 http://www.ijbcp.com pISSN 2319-2003 | eISSN 2279-0780 Original Research Article How uniform is donor history questionnaire for screening potential blood donors: a critical analysis Jayant Kumar Kairi, Manmeet Kaur* INTRODUCTION Blood or blood products are needed for replacement in numerous clinical conditions. Many of these conditions are life threatening and hence the transfusion is conducted in emergency. 1 Blood donated from healthy human volunteers in the only method currently available to acquire blood for transfusion and production of blood products. 2 However, transfusion of blood and its products are not without risks. In fact, a poorly acquired and transfused blood may do more harm than good defeating the therapeutic aim. It was realized quite early that blood from every donor might not be fit for transfusion. Much of the unsuitability of donated blood for transfusion is related to transfusion related infection (TTI). Naturally, there is a lot of emphasis to prevent TTIs to the recipients. 3 The focus of donor selection is to select a donor in good health. Such health may have been achieved with the use of prescribed medicines for whatever chronic ailments they might be having. Barring a few medicines, most medicines are not known to cause drastic effect on transfusible blood. 4 What is not clearly known that how many amongst the large group of over-the-counter DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20211024 Department of Pharmacology, Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College, Karnal, Haryana, India Received: 05 February 2021 Revised: 11 March 2021 Accepted: 12 March 2021 *Correspondence: Dr. Manmeet Kaur, Email: drmanmeet26@hotmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT Background: Transfusion of whole blood or blood products are a clinical necessity in numerous clinical conditions. Blood donated from healthy human volunteers is the only method currently available to acquire blood transfusion and production of blood products. Donor history questionnaire (DHQ) contributes immensely to ensure safe blood donation. The aim was to compare the donor history questionnaire for blood donation deferral of various regions and organizations with that of World Health Organization (WHO). Methods: An extensive internet search for donor history questionnaires (DHQ) for blood donation deferral of different regions, countries and organization was conducted. Seven such forms were found which could be downloaded. A critical analysis of these forms was conducted based on history pertaining to use of medicines, disease history or procedure undergone recently. A comparative analysis was conducted finally with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations on the issue of donor screening and deferral. Descriptive analysis was done for comparison of donor history questionnaires in regards to drugs taken, disease history and invasive procedures performed. Results: After the analysis of the DHQs, we found that despite many similarities, there were significant differences in the questionnaires. The differences were more with respect to questions asked about the medicines, both traditional as well as modern. Conclusions: DHQs analysed by us revealed wide variations in their enquiry from potential donors about exposure to prescription medicines as well as the disease history. A suggestion is that more questions related to alternative medicines, nutraceuticals and other similar xenobiotic should be included. Keywords: Blood donors, Donor history questionnaires, Drugs, Medication