(P-BC-38) Every High School Every Time: A New Program to Reduce Vasovagal Reactions in High School Donors

Background/Case Studies: High school blood donors (16-18 years of age) represent a critical demographic for all blood centers. The importance of capturing this group as first-time donors and then providing an experience that motivates return donation behavior cannot be over-emphasized. One of the known factors that reduces return donation behavior is an adverse donation reaction, especially in first-time donors. In our center, the most common adverse donation reaction in high schoolers is a vasovagal reaction. Our center provides education such as increased hydration to decrease adverse vasovagal reactions. If a vasovagal reaction does occur, cold packs and elevation of feet are the first actions taken to try to ameliorate symptoms and accelerate recovery. Our center has deployed a new strategy, “Every High School, Every Time,” where a cold pack is placed on the donor’s neck and their feet are elevated PRIOR to venipuncture, to determine if this strategy would reduce vasovagal reactions.

Study

Design/Methods: Our center implemented the “Every High School Every Time” strategy on April 9, 2025 for all high school donor collections (whole blood and automation). High school donor reaction data were obtained from our blood establishment computer system.

Results/Findings: For the period of April 9, 2024-May 9, 2024, our center saw a total of 105 vasovagal reactions (6.53%) in 1609 high school donations. Following implementation of the “Every High School, Every Time” strategy our center saw a total of 81 vasovagal reactions in 1730 high school donations (4.68%). The table shows the full data set including a breakdown by severity of vasovagal reactions. Analysis shows a statistically significant decrease in all vasovagal and mild vasovagal reactions after program implementation compared to before program implementation. * p< 0.05 by chi square analysis.

	High School Donor Reactions During Period April 9-May 9, 2024 # (%)	High School Donor Reactions During Period April 9-May 9, 2025 # (%)
All Vasovagal	105 (6.53%)	81 (4.68%)*
Mild Vasovagal	78 (4.85%)	41 (2.37%)*
Moderate Vasovagal	24 (1.49%)	35 (2.02%)
Severe Vasovagal	3 (0.19%)	5 (0.29%)

Conclusions: Following implementation of “Every High School Every Time,” our center saw a statistically significant decrease (from 6.53% to 4.68%) in vasovagal reactions after implementing the program. When broken down by severity, the mild vasovagal group also showed a significant decrease while the moderate and severe vasovagal groups did not show a statistically significant change. Although this data only represents a month’s worth of experience with the strategy, the data is compelling. Given the initial success, our center is continuing this program at all high schools and evaluating implementing this strategy for all mobile donors.