Upstream determinants of lifestyle behaviours and donor blood quality parameters

Blood supply organizations depend to a large extent on donors who can provide blood products of sufficient quality. Physical activity and dietary behaviours have been shown to be related to blood parameters. In turn, these lifestyle behaviours are considered to be driven by environmental characteristics that may affect an individual’s level of physical activity (e.g. through the availability of opportunities to walk, proximity of parks) and dietary behaviours (e.g. through availability and accessibility of foods and variety of fast-food outlets). Consequently, this may make the physical environment an important ‘upstream’ determinant of lifestyle related health outcomes like blood quality.

To gain a better understanding of the contribution of lifestyle characteristics of donors on blood quality parameters state of the art methodologies on large longitudinal observational study data will be conducted. This project aims to investigate blood parameters potentially modifiable by donors’ lifestyle behaviours and to study upstream determinants of lifestyle behaviours of donors. Based on Donor InSight data the effects of urbanization on lipid levels are being explored. Furthermore mediation analyses will be performed to investigate whether potential associations of lifestyle behaviours with levels of haemolysis are mediated by lipid levels.