The project to streamline
the uniform Donor History Questionnaire (DHQ) was begun three years ago at the
urging of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The goal of the project was to bring about major improvements in
the blood donor screening questionnaire.
To achieve this objective, FDA advocated the formation of a
multidisciplinary Task Force under the aegis of the American Association of
Blood Banks (AABB). The FDA has had
active participation in the process and has provided input on a consistent
basis.
The Final Report was
submitted to FDA on March 25, 2002 and included goals, rationale and
methodologies for changes, results of focus group and cognitive testing and the
final documents. (A copy of the Final
Report is enclosed for BPAC members who may be unfamiliar with the complete
project.) Submitted final documents
included a revised full-length donor questionnaire, an abbreviated
questionnaire for frequent repeat donors, a medication deferral list, donor
pre-screening educational materials and user brochures for the two screening
questionnaires. After extensive internal review by FDA, several rounds of
clarification and minor modifications by the Task Force, the AABB was given
permission in July 2003 to release the full-length questionnaire and user
brochure, medication deferral list and educational materials for review by
member centers in anticipation of implementation.
Abbreviated Donor
Screening Questionnaire (aDHQ)
All donors, including
frequent donors, are currently required to answer all UDH questions, even those
that pertain to one-time historical events that could never recur (e.g. the use
of human pituitary-derived growth hormone, which was no longer available after
the early 1980s). Donors and blood
centers have long desired an abbreviated questionnaire for frequent
donors. In September 1993 and again in
March 1994, BPAC reviewed the American Institutes of Research (AIR) study to
determine if the blood supply could be improved by using a more effective
process to screen donors. A
subcommittee of BPAC was formed to study the data from AIR more carefully; that
subcommittee supported the use of an abbreviated history for repeat donors,
adding that an abbreviated history could be used either with the current
interview process or with a computer- assisted process.
As charged by FDA at the
October 12, 2000 FDA-AABB sponsored Workshop on Streamlining the Blood Donor
History Questionnaire, the Task Force has developed an abbreviated DHQ based on
the validated full length DHQ. A copy
of the DHQ and aDHQ are attached. The
DHQ is marked to indicate specific differences between the screening documents.