Recruitment of stem cell donors to the Czech national marrow donor registry between 2013-2017 (demographic data)
Abstract
The Czech National Marrow Donors Registry (CNMDR) was established in 1992 to find an optimal "national" donor for Czech patients or to provide a donor from abroad as soon as possible. The current state of the CNMDR database (to October 31, 2018) stands at 83.000 donors and the median age of all active donors in the registry is 32 years.
Given the transplant centres' preference for younger donors and for economic reasons, the CNMDR reduced the maximum age limit for entry into the registry to 35 years in 2009. The aim of our work was to evaluate the success of this age restriction and general recruitment strategy focusing on young males and to evaluate the quantitative and qualitative recruitment parameters in 2013-2017.
Between 2013 and 2017, the recruitment of new donors ranged from 5.000 to 10.000/year. In total, 36.720 donors were recruited during this period.
Newly recruited donor gender distribution has been almost equally balanced in recent years. The average median age of recruited donors was 27 years.
This massive recruitment of young donors led to a continuous reduction of the CNMDR database donor median age. The presented data clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of the current CNMDR recruitment strategy.
In the past years, there has been a significant decrease in the donor age median as well as an increase in male donor contribution. This is in accordance with the preferences of transplant centres that prefer young donors especially males, based on published data.
For this recruitment strategy to remain successful, the CNMDR will need to maintain its continued good cooperation with donor and recruitment centres as well as with volunteers.