Guidance for Industry 

Implementation of Acceptable FullLength Donor History Questionnaire 

and Accompanying Materials for Use 

in Screening Donors of Blood and 

Blood Components 

Additional copies of this guidance are available from the Office of Communication, Training and 

Manufacturers Assistance (HFM-40), 1401 Rockville Pike, Suite 200N, Rockville, MD 20852-

1448, or by calling 1-800-835-4709 or 301-827-1800, or from the Internet at 

http://www.fda.gov/cber/guidelines.htm. 

For questions on the content of this guidance, contact the Division of Blood Applications, Office 

of Blood Research and Review (OBRR), Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), 

at 301-827-3543. 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 

Food and Drug Administration 

Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research 

October 2006
Contains Nonbinding Recommendations 

Table of Contents 

I. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 1

II. BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................... 2

III. REPORTING TO FDA THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ACCEPTABLE DONOR 

HISTORY QUESTIONNAIRE AND ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS BY 

LICENSED MANUFACTURERS .................................................................................. 4

A. Implementation of Acceptable DHQ Documents............................................... 4

B. Implementing the Self-Administration of Acceptable DHQ Documents......... 5

IV. RECOGNITION OF V.DHQ-1.1 .................................................................................... 6

V. RECOGNITION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF FUTURE ACCEPTABLE DHQ 

DOCUMENTS................................................................................................................... 7

VI. FOR MORE INFORMATION........................................................................................ 7

VII. REFERENCES.................................................................................................................. 8

i 
Contains Nonbinding Recommendations 

Guidance for Industry 

Implementation of Acceptable Full-Length Donor History 

Questionnaire and Accompanying Materials for Use in Screening 

Donors of Blood and Blood Components 

This guidance represents the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) current thinking on this 

topic. It does not create or confer any rights for or on any person and does not operate to bind 

FDA or the public. You can use an alternative approach if the approach satisfies the 

requirements of the applicable statutes and regulations. If you want to discuss an alternative 

approach, contact the appropriate FDA staff. If you cannot identify the appropriate FDA staff, 

call the appropriate number listed on the title page of this guidance. 

I. INTRODUCTION 

This guidance provides blood establishments that collect blood and blood components intended 

for transfusion or for further manufacture (referred to as “manufacturers” or “you”) with advice 

on reporting to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) a manufacturing change consisting of 

the implementation of a standardized full-length donor history questionnaire and accompanying 

materials (DHQ documents). The DHQ documents will provide you with a specific process for 

administering questions to donors of blood and blood components (referred to as “donors”) to 

determine their eligibility1

 to donate. Acceptable DHQ documents are DHQ documents that 

FDA has determined will provide licensed and unlicensed manufacturers with one means of 

complying with the donor screening requirements in §§ 640.3 and 640.63. 

This guidance advises licensed manufacturers who choose to implement acceptable DHQ 

documents on how to report the manufacturing change to FDA under § 601.12 (21 CFR 601.12), 

and on the information they should submit. Since they are not required to report manufacturing 

changes under § 601.12, unlicensed registered manufacturers implementing the use of acceptable 

DHQ documents do not need to report this change to FDA. 

In this guidance, we also recognize Donor History Questionnaire Version No. 1.1 dated June 

2005 (v.DHQ-1.1), prepared by the AABB (formerly known as the American Association of 

Blood Banks) Donor History Task Force, as an acceptable mechanism that is consistent with 

FDA requirements and recommendations for collecting donor history information. In the future, 

we may recognize other DHQ documents as acceptable, and intend to make all of the acceptable 

DHQ documents available at http://www.fda.gov/cber/dhq/dhq.htm. 

 

1

 We are using the term ‘eligibility’ in this guidance to refer to the donor suitability requirements described in §§ 

640.3 and 640.63 (21 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 640.3 and 640.63). 

 
Contains Nonbinding Recommendations 

This guidance finalizes the draft guidance entitled “Guidance for Industry: Acceptable FullLength Donor History Questionnaire and Accompanying Materials for Use in Screening Human 

Donors of Blood and Blood Components” dated April 2004 (May 12, 2004, 69 FR 26399).2

FDA’s guidance documents, including this guidance, do not establish legally enforceable 

responsibilities. Instead, guidances describe FDA’s current thinking on a topic and should be 

viewed only as recommendations, unless specific regulatory or statutory requirements are cited. 

The use of the word should in FDA’s guidances means that something is suggested or 

recommended, but not required. 

II. BACKGROUND 

A donor’s eligibility to donate blood and blood components is determined in part by a physical 

assessment and medical history interview to determine whether the donor is free of any diseases 

transmissible by blood transfusion. Such determination must be made on the day of collection 

from the donor (§§ 640.3(a) and 640.63(a)). The first formal uniform donor screening 

questionnaire was developed in 1953 (Ref. 1). Since then, the number of questions and the 

amount of information captured during the questioning process has increased to capture 

information related to newly recognized risks of disease transmission, resulting in an 

increasingly complex and time-consuming process. 

The primary purpose of questioning the donor is to ensure that the donor is in good health and 

the donation process is safe for the donor, and to identify risk factors for diseases transmissible 

by blood and blood components. The donor interview is especially important to identify risks for 

diseases and conditions for which there are no laboratory tests, for which tests are not sensitive 

enough to detect infectious disease agents, and for which tests are unable to identify early stage 

or window period infections. 

Donor questionnaires play an important role in identifying most ineligible donors, but we are 

aware that the donor questionnaire processes currently in place at United States blood collection 

establishments do not prevent all ineligible donors from donating. This is evidenced by the 

numerous biological product deviation reports submitted to CBER each year related to errors in 

capturing information and identifying ineligible donors during the donor questioning process 

(Ref. 2). 

In 2000, the AABB convened a multi-organizational task force3

 to address several issues related 

to the donor questionnaire process (Ref. 3). The goals of the task force included reducing the 

complexity of the questionnaire and the educational materials to assure that donors will better 

comprehend the information and provide more accurate responses. The task force consisted of 

 

2

 The April 2004 draft guidance referred to the DHQ documents version 1 (v.DHQ-1). Since the draft issued, the 

AABB task force revised the v.DHQ-1 slightly, creating Version No. 1.1. This guidance refers to that revised 

version as v.DHQ-1.1. 

3

 In the April 2004 draft guidance, we referred to this task force as the “Interorganizational Uniform Donor History 

Questionnaire Task Force.” They have since changed their name to the “AABB Donor History Task Force” to 

reflect their broader initiative. 

 
Contains Nonbinding Recommendations 

representatives from the blood and plasma industry and professional trade organizations to 

ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that all blood establishments would be represented, as well 

as support and use the donor history questionnaire and accompanying materials prepared by the 

task force. The task force also included an ethicist, statistician, experts in survey design and 

cognitive methods, and liaisons from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and FDA. 

The task force revised and redesigned the pre-existing AABB Uniform Donor History 

Questionnaire and developed a new process for interviewing donors. The new process includes 

use of the following methods and materials to obtain information about a donor. The materials 

are intended to be used in their entirety. 

• Full-Length Donor History Questionnaire – contains all initial donor screening questions. 

• Donor History Questionnaire User Brochure – includes a glossary, flow charts and 

references; describes how questions should be administered; and contains follow-up 

questions to further evaluate a potential donor’s response to capture questions. “Capture” 

questions ask a general question about a donor’s history or behavior and are followed up 

by more specific questions if needed. 

• Medication Deferral List – companion document to the questionnaire that contains a list 

of medications that may serve as a basis for donor deferral. 

• Blood Donor Educational Materials – educates the donor about the donation process and 

risks and conditions that are the basis for deferrals. 

The task force developed and evaluated new questions to determine if donors could comprehend 

them and provide correct information. Previously published focus group studies showed that 

questions should be simple and focus on one behavior rather than ask about several different 

behaviors, and that some terms required clarification in order to enhance donor comprehension 

(Ref. 4). Cognitive interview studies, conducted as part of the task force efforts, provided 

information on recall, suggested that questions should be reasonably specific, and indicated that 

individuals tended to answer the questions conservatively, even if they did not always interpret 

the questions uniformly. The results of the tests showed that there is a need to educate donors 

about why certain behaviors put them at risk to transmit diseases to recipients. Blood donor 

interviewers in several blood collection establishments also evaluated the final questioning 

process. The blood collection establishments stated that the new process for asking questions 

and for providing information to the donors was an effective, easy-to-use tool (Ref. 5). 

We discussed the new donor questionnaire process during several Blood Product Advisory 

Committee (BPAC) meetings. Informational presentations were given during the BPAC meeting 

held on June 14, 2001. These presentations described the task force activities, the new 

questionnaire process developed by the task force, and the focus group study design (Ref. 6). 

The progress of the task force’s activities and the results of the cognitive studies were presented 

during the BPAC meeting held on June 13, 2002 (Ref. 7). The BPAC unanimously supported 

the task force’s efforts at each meeting. 

 
Contains Nonbinding Recommendations 

III. REPORTING TO FDA THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ACCEPTABLE DONOR 

HISTORY QUESTIONNAIRE AND ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS BY 

LICENSED MANUFACTURERS 

We believe that the use of acceptable DHQ documents will provide one way to meet FDA 

requirements and recommendations related to donor eligibility interviews. Acceptable DHQ 

documents may also contain questions related to issues that FDA does not require or recommend 

for determining donor eligibility. By recognizing that the use of acceptable DHQ documents is 

one way to satisfy regulatory requirements, we are not requiring or recommending that donors be 

screened or deferred for these issues. Manufacturers are free to use an alternate questionnaire, 

which does not include questions related to these additional issues, or, if they choose to 

implement acceptable DHQ documents, to eliminate the additional questions from their 

procedures. 

While we recognize that acceptable DHQ documents provide an effective tool for screening 

donors, we do not require that manufacturers implement acceptable DHQ documents. Licensed 

manufacturers may continue to use their previously approved full-length donor history 

questionnaire and accompanying materials, including any previously approved alternative 

procedures and wording, and may implement, consistently with § 601.12, other processes in the 

future. 

A. Implementation of Acceptable DHQ Documents 

For licensed manufacturers that decide to implement acceptable DHQ documents, the 

implementation is a manufacturing change reportable to FDA under § 601.12. 

1. Report as a minor change if acceptable DHQ documents are implemented without 

modifications and in their entirety as a complete process for administering questions 

to donors. Report such a change to FDA in your annual report under § 601.12(d), 

noting the date the process was implemented. If donors will be allowed to selfadminister acceptable DHQ documents, see section IV.B. 

2. Report as a minor change if acceptable DHQ documents are implemented in their 

entirety, but modified (a) by adding additional, more restrictive selection criteria that 

are specific to your blood establishment; or (b) by omitting questions that FDA has 

not required or recommended for determining donor eligibility. Report such changes 

to FDA in your annual report under § 601.12(d), noting the date the process was 

implemented and describing the additional criteria or questions that were omitted 

from your questionnaire. 

3. Report as a minor change if acceptable DHQ documents are implemented in their 

entirety but modified by displaying in another format that is compatible with your 

current standard operating procedures (SOPs) the information contained in the flow 

charts, provided that there is no change to the content of the flow charts related to an 

FDA required/recommended donor deferral criterion. Report such changes to FDA in 

 
Contains Nonbinding Recommendations 

your annual report under § 601.12(d), noting the date the process was implemented 

and describing how you modified the acceptable DHQ documents. 

4. Report as a minor change if acceptable DHQ documents are implemented in their 

entirety, but modified by reformatting any of the acceptable DHQ documents (other 

than the flow charts) to be consistent with your current SOPs, provided you do not 

change the wording and the order of content in the acceptable DHQ documents. 

Report such changes to FDA in your annual report under § 601.12(d), noting the date 

the process was implemented and describing how you modified acceptable DHQ 

documents. 

5. Because donor screening is so important to the safety of blood and blood components, 

and because screening procedures have a substantial potential to have an adverse 

effect on the quality, including safety and effectiveness, of blood and blood 

components, we cannot conclude at this time that the implementation of acceptable 

DHQ documents, which are modified other than as specifically described in sections 

IV.A.2, IV.A.3, and IV.A.4, will be a minor change.4

 Therefore, if you wish to 

implement and modify acceptable DHQ documents other than as described in 

sections IV.A.2, IV.A.3, and IV.A.4, report such changes to FDA as a Prior Approval 

Supplement (PAS) under § 601.12(b). We recommend that you include the following 

in the submission: 

a. FDA Form 356h “Application to Market a New Drug, Biologic or an 

Antibiotic Drug for Human Use.” 

b. A cover letter describing the request and the contents of the submission. 

c. A written SOP describing the donor questions and questionnaire process. 

Please highlight the modifications. 

d. The full-length donor history questionnaire and accompanying document(s). 

For assistance in preparing the supplement, see FDA’s “Guidance for Industry: For the 

Submission of Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls and Establishment Description 

Information for Human Blood and Blood Components Intended for Transfusion or for 

Further Manufacture and for the Completion of the Form FDA 356h ‘Application to 

Market a New Drug, Biologic or an Antibiotic Drug for Human Use’” dated May 1999 

(Ref. 8). 

B. Implementing the Self-Administration of Acceptable DHQ Documents 

The task force prepared the v.DHQ-1.1 to provide an option for the donor to selfadminister the questionnaire. Future versions of the DHQ documents may also provide 

for donor self-administration. In July 2003, we issued a guidance document entitled 

“Guidance for Industry: Streamlining the Donor Interview Process: Recommendations 

for Self-Administered Questionnaires” (Streamlining Donor Interview guidance), 

advising licensed blood establishments to submit procedures for self-administering the 

 

4

 This would include any modification(s) to the acceptable DHQ documents for purposes of screening and 

determining the eligibility of Source Plasma donors consistent with FDA requirements and recommendations. 

 
Contains Nonbinding Recommendations 

donor history questionnaire to FDA as a Changes Being Effected in 30 days supplement 

(CBE30) under § 601.12(c) (Ref. 9). We determined in the Streamlining Donor 

Interview guidance that a CBE30 was an appropriate supplement to ensure that controls 

were in place to manage this process. However, when acceptable DHQ documents 

include instructions for controlling the self-administration process,5 as described below, 

this change may be reported in an annual report or, in some situations, as a CBE30. 

These provisions modify those stated in the Streamlining Donor Interview guidance. 

Licensed manufacturers planning to implement self-administration of a questionnaire 

other than acceptable DHQ documents should continue to consult the Streamlining Donor 

Interview guidance (Ref. 9). 

Licensed manufacturers that want to offer donors the option of self-administering 

acceptable DHQ documents should report this change to us as follows: 

1. Report as a minor change if a manufacturer chooses to implement self-administration 

of acceptable DHQ documents using the written form or audio/visual presentation 

methods described in the acceptable DHQ documents. Report such a change to FDA 

in your annual report under § 601.12(d), noting the date the process was 

implemented. 

2. Report as a moderate change if a manufacturer chooses to implement acceptable 

DHQ documents using a computer-assisted interactive interview procedure. This 

change presents a potential to adversely affect the quality, including the safety and 

effectiveness, of blood and blood components because of concerns that the 

presentation of the questions and information may not be easily readable in all 

conditions and by all potential users. Additionally, implementation for the first time 

of a computer-assisted interactive interview procedure may raise new issues that 

should be evaluated, such as the management of electronic records. Report such 

change to FDA as a CBE30 under § 601.12(c). 

For assistance in implementing and reporting of self-administered questionnaires other 

than as described above, and for preparing the supplement for the computer-assisted 

interactive interview procedure, see the Streamlining Donor Interview guidance (Ref. 9). 

IV. RECOGNITION OF V.DHQ-1.1 

We recognize v.DHQ-1.1 as acceptable DHQ documents that provide an acceptable mechanism 

for implementing FDA requirements and recommendations related to donor eligibility 

interviews. The v.DHQ-1.1 contains questions related to the following donor medical history 

issues for which we currently do not have requirements or recommendations: cancer; organ, 

tissue, or bone marrow transplant; bone or skin graft; and pregnancy. As stated in section III, 

manufacturers implementing v.DHQ-1.1 that omit these questions would still be in compliance 

with FDA requirements. 

 

5

 For example, v.DHQ-1.1 includes a Donor History Questionnaire User Brochure. 

 
Contains Nonbinding Recommendations 

V. RECOGNITION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF FUTURE ACCEPTABLE DHQ 

DOCUMENTS 

In the future, we may issue regulations or guidance documents concerning donor deferrals when 

we identify new infectious diseases, medical conditions, or medications that have the potential to 

affect the donor’s safety or the safety, purity, and potency of blood and blood components. 

Implementation of new safeguards would change your donor interview SOPs, and involve 

amending either acceptable DHQ documents(typically by adding a question at the end of the 

questionnaire in the area designated for additional questions or by implementing new or revised 

acceptable DHQ documents), or if you do not use acceptable DHQ documents, your own 

questionnaire. We anticipate that in the event we recommend a new donor deferral criterion, we 

will, in the same guidance, provide recommendations concerning implementing and reporting to 

FDA the manufacturing changes associated with this change in procedure. If revised DHQ 

documents are available and acceptable, we also intend to recognize those DHQ documents as 

acceptable and may do so in the document addressing the donor deferrals. We intend to make all 

acceptable DHQ documents available at http://www.fda.gov/cber/dhq/dhq.htm. 

If you intend to use such future documents, we recommend that you have a mechanism in place 

for implementing the updated acceptable DHQ documents in all your facilities. 

VI. FOR MORE INFORMATION 

If you have questions regarding this guidance and FDA policies for implementing acceptable 

DHQ documents, call the Division of Blood Applications, OBRR, CBER, at 301-827-3543 or 

fax at 301-827-3534. 

If you have questions regarding the v.DHQ-1.1 or other AABB DHQ documents, call AABB, at 

301-907-6977 or fax at 301-907-6895 to the attention of the AABB Donor History Task Force. 

DHQ documents that FDA has recognized as acceptable are available at 

http://www.fda.gov/cber/dhq/dhq.htm. 

 
Contains Nonbinding Recommendations 

VII. REFERENCES 

1. American Association of Blood Banks, Technical Methods and Procedures of the American 

Association of Blood Banks, pp. 3-5, Minneapolis: Burgess Publishing Co., 1953. 

2. CBER Biological Product Deviation Reports, FY04 Summary, April 28, 2005. 

(http://www.fda.gov/cber/biodev/bpdrfy04.htm) 

3. FDA/AABB Workshop on “Streamlining the Blood Donor History Questionnaire” 

Transcripts – October 16, 2000. (http://www.fda.gov/cber/minutes/bldqstn101600.pdf) 

4. Orton, S., V. Virvos, and A. Williams, “Validation of Selected Donor-Screening Questions: 

Structure, Content and Comprehension,” Transfusion, 40:1407-1413, 2000. 

5. AABB Task Force UDHQ Submission dated March 25, 2002. 

6. Blood Product Advisory Committee Transcripts – June 14, 2001. 

(http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/cber01.htm#Blood%20Products) 

7. Blood Product Advisory Committee Transcripts – June 13, 2002. 

(http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/cber02.htm#BloodProducts) 

8. FDA “Guidance for Industry: For the Submission of Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls 

and Establishment Description Information for Human Blood and Blood Components 

Intended for Transfusion or for Further Manufacture and for the Completion of the Form 

FDA 356h ‘Application to Market a New Drug, Biologic or an Antibiotic Drug for Human 

Use,’” May 10, 1999. (http://www.fda.gov/cber/gdlns/cmcblood.htm) 

9. FDA “Guidance for Industry: Streamlining the Donor Interview Process: Recommendations 

for Self-Administered Questionnaires,” July 3, 2003. 

(http://www.fda.gov/cber/gdlns/donorsaq.htm)