Correlates of support for organ donation among three ethnic groups

Abstract

Telephone interviews about organ donation were conducted with 4880 white respondents, 634 African-American respondents and 566 Hispanic respondents. Forty-three percent (42.9%) of whites, 31.2% of Hispanics and 22.6% of African-Americans reported that they were willing to donate their organs after their death (p < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis revealed three significant correlates of willingness to donate across all ethnic groups: having had a family discussion about end-of-life issues; the belief that a doctor does all he or she can to save a life before pursuing donation; and concerns about surgical 'disfigurement' of a relative's body after donation. Concerns in relation to body disfigurement were more prevalent among African-American and Hispanic respondents (p < 0.001) than among white respondents. Public education should: a) stress the need for family communication about end-of-life issues including organ donation; b) underline the fact that donation is considered only after all efforts to save the life of the patient are exhausted; and c) reassure minorities that the body of the donor is treated respectfully and not disfigured.

Understanding the relationship between knowledge and African Americans’ donation decision-making

“…Drawing from existing measures in the research literature, we created a 24-item scale that captured attitudes and beliefs about donation and transplantation [6,30,43,44]. This scale included items that measured support for donation, willingness to donate to people of other racial/ethnic groups, religious objections to donation, concerns that donation might hasten death, trust in the donation and transplantation system, and perceptions of equality in the transplant system.…”

“…Among African Americans in particular, studies using a composite measure of knowledge demonstrate that overall knowledge about organ donation is an important predictor of willingness to donate [6,26,[38][39][40][41]. However, less research has explored how different types of knowledge relate to donation intentions among African Americans.…”

“…Note, however, that there is a lack of research that explores racial differences in donation consent rates using multivariate analyses that control for demographic characteristics and health suitability. Nevertheless, the relatively low donation rates reflected in existing data may be due to a variety of factors including reduced health-related eligibility for living and deceased donation as a result of the disproportionate burden of chronic disease among African Americans, lack of information about donation, and negative attitudes towards donation among African Americans as compared to people of other racial/ethnic backgrounds [5,6]. Taken together, all of these factors contribute to African Americans spending more than twice the amount of time on the national transplant waiting list as compared to Whites [7][8][9][10].…”

Race: A critical factor in organ donation, patient referral and selection, and orthotopic liver transplantation?

“…[3][4][5] Recently, concentrated efforts have been undertaken, both in the media and at the level of local organ procurement organizations, to encourage organ donation, not only in the black population, but on a wider national scale. Despite these efforts to improve organ procurement, the slight increase in donation has not kept pace with the number of people waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant.…”

Increasing the Likelihood of Consent in Deceased Donations: Point-of-Decision Campaigns, Registries, and the Law of Large Numbers

“…In addition to lack of awareness and lack of knowledge Yancey et al, 1997), religion (Reitz & Callender, 1993;Wittig, 2001;Yancey, et al, 1997) preference for directed donation (Arnason, 1991;Hall, et al, 1991;Lange, 1992;Reitz & Callender, 1993), medical mistrust (e.g. McNamara, et al, 1999;Plawecki, et al, 1988;Reitz & Callender, 1993;Siminoff & Arnold, 1999;Siminoff & Chillag, 1999;Spigner, et al, 1999;Yancey, et al, 1997;Yuen, et al, 1998), and a desire to maintain bodily integrity (McNamara, et al 1999;Rubens & Oleckno, 1998;Spigner, et al, 1999) are the major reasons cited by researchers for African Americans' unwillingness to donate organs. Morgan and Cannon (2003) conducted a study of 300 African American adults in New Jersey, which demonstrated that there are key barriers that require particular attention when targeting African Americans with organ donation messages.…”