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As a result of one donation, whole blood donors lose approximately 200 mg of iron. Depending on the decrease in ferritin levels after a whole blood donation and the rate of restoring ferritin to pre-donation levels, optimal donation intervals may differ between donors.

Ferritin levels of 300 new whole blood donors will be measured from stored (lookback) samples from each donation over a two year period. Donors are selected if stored samples from at least two whole blood donations are available. With the use of a growth mixture model, we predict ferritin trajectories based on subsequent measurements of ferritin levels from samples collected during whole blood donation in the past. This is of practical importance as this will help blood collection centres to identify donors with fast declining ferritin levels and to tailor donation intervals to prevent iron deficiency and donor deferral.