Anthropometric and Nutritional Characteristics of Voluntary Blood Donors: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study at a Tertiary Care Hospital Blood Centre in a Lower Middle-Income Country

Anthropometric and Nutritional Characteristics of Voluntary Blood Donors: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study at a Tertiary Care Hospital Blood Centre in a Lower Middle-Income Country | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Anthropometric and Nutritional Characteristics of Voluntary Blood Donors: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study at a Tertiary Care Hospital Blood Centre in a Lower Middle-Income Country Trileeshiya Induni Withanawasam, SAC Dalpatadu, Eisha Indumani Waidyarathne, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7260648/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 7 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Background: Understanding the dietary habits and body compositions of blood donors helps promote donor nutritional status while improving donor retention. Data on the nutritional status and anthropometric parameters of donors are scarce in Sri Lanka. This study assessed dietary patterns and anthropometric parameters among blood donors in a tertiary setting in Sri Lanka. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 200 voluntary donors at University Hospital Kotelawala Defence University (UHKDU) from September 2023 to April 2024. Consecutive voluntary donors who consented were recruited for the study. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect basic demographics and information relevant to blood donation and anthropometric measurements were obtained using standardized equipment. An adult dietary diary was used to collect dietary information. The number of food servings was converted into grams using reference measures. The total intake of the main food items was compared with the recommended daily allowance (RDA). Data analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS version 25. Results: Among the 200 participants, the majority were males (n=153, 76.5%). Nearly half of the donors had a normal BMI (n=102, 51.0%), with a considerable number of overweight (n=64, 32.0%) or obese (n=24, 12%) individuals. The mean calorie intake was below the RDA for 80.2% (n=114) of the males and 84.4% (n=49) of the females. Dhal and other pulses (45%) mainly fulfilled the daily iron requirements, followed by fish and other seafood. The daily iron intake was higher than the RDA in most males (n=126, 88.7%) and females (n=37, 63.8%). The majority (n=183, 91.5%) of the donors did not take iron supplements, and 77% (n=154) of the donors were unaware that the iron stores were depleted with regular blood donation. A weak positive but significant correlation was observed between the BMI of donors and the frequency of donations in the last two years. Conclusions: The findings highlight that nearly half of the donors had a high BMI. The donors tended to have high iron intake, mostly from low bioavailable sources. The knowledge of donors on iron depletion with regular donations and iron supplementation were unsatisfactory. Therefore, a focused health education program to address needs is recommended. Blood donors Nutrition Anthropometry Iron depletion Dietary iron consumption Lowermiddle-income country Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviews received at journal 30 Nov, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 20 Nov, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 10 Nov, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 14 Aug, 2025 Editor invited by journal 11 Aug, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 07 Aug, 2025 First submitted to journal 07 Aug, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7260648","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":546337012,"identity":"df2b8d67-b34a-4422-9f4c-da8d2cee724b","order_by":0,"name":"Trileeshiya Induni 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Nutritional Characteristics of Voluntary Blood Donors: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study at a Tertiary Care Hospital Blood Centre in a Lower Middle-Income Country\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"bmc-nutrition","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"nutn","sideBox":"Learn more about [BMC Nutrition](http://bmcnutr.biomedcentral.com/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://www.editorialmanager.com/nutn/default.aspx","title":"BMC 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Data on the nutritional status and anthropometric parameters of donors are scarce in Sri Lanka. This study assessed dietary patterns and anthropometric parameters among blood donors in a tertiary setting in Sri Lanka.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMethods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 200 voluntary donors at University Hospital Kotelawala Defence University (UHKDU) from September 2023 to April 2024. Consecutive voluntary donors who consented were recruited for the study. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect basic demographics and information relevant to blood donation and anthropometric measurements were obtained using standardized equipment. An adult dietary diary was used to collect dietary information. The number of food servings was converted into grams using reference measures. The total intake of the main food items was compared with the recommended daily allowance (RDA). Data analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS version 25.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eResults: Among the 200 participants, the majority were males (n=153, 76.5%). Nearly half of the donors had a normal BMI (n=102, 51.0%), with a considerable number of overweight (n=64, 32.0%) or obese (n=24, 12%) individuals. The mean calorie intake was below the RDA for 80.2% (n=114) of the males and 84.4% (n=49) of the females. Dhal and other pulses (45%) mainly fulfilled the daily iron requirements, followed by fish and other seafood. The daily iron intake was higher than the RDA in most males (n=126, 88.7%) and females (n=37, 63.8%). The majority (n=183, 91.5%) of the donors did not take iron supplements, and 77% (n=154) of the donors were unaware that the iron stores were depleted with regular blood donation. A weak positive but significant correlation was observed between the BMI of donors and the frequency of donations in the last two years.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConclusions: The findings highlight that nearly half of the donors had a high BMI. The donors tended to have high iron intake, mostly from low bioavailable sources. The knowledge of donors on iron depletion with regular donations and iron supplementation were unsatisfactory. Therefore, a focused health education program to address needs is recommended.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Anthropometric and Nutritional Characteristics of Voluntary Blood Donors: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study at a Tertiary Care Hospital Blood Centre in a Lower Middle-Income Country","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-11-19 22:59:28","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7260648/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-11-30T18:01:17+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"206855300913914182903777590665432546222","date":"2025-11-20T08:12:44+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-11-10T13:09:43+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-08-14T18:26:42+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"","date":"2025-08-11T07:43:54+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-08-07T17:54:10+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"BMC Nutrition","date":"2025-08-07T17:52:53+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"bmc-nutrition","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"nutn","sideBox":"Learn more about [BMC Nutrition](http://bmcnutr.biomedcentral.com/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://www.editorialmanager.com/nutn/default.aspx","title":"BMC Nutrition","twitterHandle":"BMC_series","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"BMC Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"53291f9a-f8e8-40ff-b95e-16fa70d99112","owner":[],"postedDate":"November 19th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-11-19T22:59:28+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-11-19 22:59:28","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7260648","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7260648","identity":"rs-7260648","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}