From pandemic to participation: A two-year follow-up of blood donors in the Netherlands who registered during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021), people were urged to minimize movements. Nevertheless, the Netherlands observed a huge increase in new donor registrations in early 2020. It is unclear whether such "pandemic" donors are willing to become repeat donors. The aim of this study was to analyze the donation behavior of these "pandemic" donors during 2 years after registration.

Methods: All donors registered in weeks 11-20 of 2020 were followed for 2 years and their turnout for the new donor screening (NDS), their first-time donation (FTD), their donation(s) in the follow-up period, and their availability at the end of the follow-up period was compared with donors registered in weeks 11-20 of the previous years, 2017-2019.

Results: Totally 26,463 donors registered during week 11-20 in 2020; more than double as in the same period in previous years. Their turnout for the NDS (80%) and FTD (60%) was like donors registered in 2017-2019. On the longer term, we saw lower donor availability with a shift in number of whole blood and plasma donations.

Discussion: During the first phase of the pandemic, more people registered than usual. Their show rates for the NDS and the FTD were comparable with previous years, suggesting that "pandemic" donors show identical behavior as regular donors. On the long term, however, donation behavior differed (lower return rates and shift in donation types). Further research is needed to disentangle impacts of the pandemic especially on the long-term changes as they happened simultaneously with policy and recruitment changes.