Experience with routine total nonfasting blood cholesterol screening of volunteer blood and component donors

BACKGROUND: There is an increasing number of blood programs giving donors information about health risks for cardiovascular disease based on a total nonfasting cholesterol level measured at donation. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Experience with screening 187,714 individual donors for total nonfasting cholesterol was reviewed and results were compared with those for a representative sample of United States adults as published in National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Donors were invited to retrieve their results and were tracked as to whether they used this service or not. RESULTS: By comparison with the national surveys, more blood donors have normal total nonfasting cholesterols and fewer have borderline high or high values as defined by the National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel. These observations hold for both males and females across all age ranges from 20 to older than 75 years. Only a minority of donors retrieve their results. CONCLUSIONS: The blood donor setting can be expanded, by inclusion of total nonfasting cholesterol level, to include screening for cardiovascular disease risk. When compared with the general adult population, donors represent a group at less risk for heart disease.