Transforming Curiosity Into Donation: Validating a Risk Prediction Index to Detect and Prevent Drop-Out in Potential Living Kidney Donors Who Are Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Transforming Curiosity Into Donation: Validating a Risk Prediction Index to Detect and Prevent Drop-Out in Potential Living Kidney Donors Who Are Racial/Ethnic Minorities
This is a multi-step study that will first create a preliminary living donor drop-out risk index (LD-DROP) by retrospectively identifying factors that contribute to the discontinuation of living donor evaluation. Investigators will then validate the LD-DROP index by prospectively tracking the progress of a large group of individuals presenting for living kidney donor evaluation.
In parallel, investigators will conduct focus groups with previous donors and individual qualitative interviews with potential living donors who vary by race, gender, and level of risk for drop-out, to explore barriers affecting their donation decision-making, and the most helpful interventions for overcoming these barriers.
Finally, using data gathered from the LD-DROP index and individual interviews, investigators will pilot an intervention with potential donors identified to be at a modifiable high risk of drop-out.
To reduce disparities in living donation and increase living kidney donor transplant (LKDT), investigators propose to:
Aim 1a: Retrospectively identify clinical factors, social determinants of health, and other modifiable factors that are correlated with discontinuation of the donor candidate's evaluation to develop a living donor drop-out risk prediction index, LD-DROP. Subgroup analyses will examine issues specific to racial and ethnic minorities and potential donors of lower socioeconomic status (SES) independently to determine if socioeconomic factors differentially impact donation in minority populations.
Aim 1b: Prospectively validate the LD-DROP index for predicting drop-out during evaluation. Potential donors (n=2000) who initiate referral in the respective electronic medical record will be followed for a 2-year period after initiation to assess final donation outcomes.
Aim 2: Conduct community-engaged research with previous donors (n=12) from the NKF PEERS mentoring program, and potential donors (n=100) from Houston Methodist Hospital Transplant Center (HMH-TC) and Cooperman Barnabas Transplant Center (CB-TC) to better understand how to support potential living donors at high risk for drop-out during evaluation who are Black, Hispanic, have lower SES, and/or are entering the evaluation process at varying levels of readiness.
Aim 3: Pilot an intervention with potential donors (n=73) from HMH-TC and the NKF PEERS mentoring program to support potential donors identified as being at high risk of dropping out from evaluation.
Inclusion Criteria:
Exclusion Criteria: