Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2014 Nov 15;98(9):979-86.
doi: 10.1097/TP.0000000000000165.

Making house calls increases living donor inquiries and evaluations for blacks on the kidney transplant waiting list

James R Rodrigue  1 , Matthew J Paek, Ogo Egbuna, Amy D Waterman, Jesse D Schold, Martha Pavlakis, Didier A Mandelbrot
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Making house calls increases living donor inquiries and evaluations for blacks on the kidney transplant waiting list

James R Rodrigue et al. Transplantation. .

Abstract

Background: Blacks receive live donor kidney transplant (LDKT) less often than patients of all other races. We evaluated the effectiveness of educational interventions in removing barriers to LDKT for blacks.

Methods: Patients were randomized to three interventions in which health educator(s) delivered an intervention to (a) the patient and his/her guests in the patient's home (house calls [HC], n=54), (b) clusters of patients and their guests in the transplant center (group based [GB], n=49), and (c) the individual patient alone in the transplant center (individual counseling [IC], n=49).

Results: At the 2-year endpoint, 15% (n=8), 8% (n=4), and 6% (n=3) of HC, GB, and IC patients, respectively, received LDKT (P=0.30). Patients in the HC group were more likely than patients in the GB and IC groups to have at least one donor inquiry (82% vs. 61% vs. 47%, P=0.001) and evaluation (65% vs. 39% vs. 27%, P<0.001). Patients in the HC group also were more likely to have higher knowledge, fewer concerns, and higher willingness to talk to others about donation 6 weeks after intervention.

Conclusions: These findings underscore the importance of including the patient's social network in LDKT education and the potential of the HC intervention to reduce racial disparity in LDKT rates.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study flowchart.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kurian AK, Cardarelli KM. Racial and ethnic differences in cardiovascular disease risk factors: a systematic review. Ethn Dis. 2007;17:143–52. - PubMed
    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Differences in prevalence of obesity among black, white, and Hispanic adults - United States, 2006-2008. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2009;58:740–4. - PubMed
    1. Kramer H, Han C, Post W, Goff D, Diez-Roux A, Cooper R, et al. Racial/ethnic differences in hypertension and hypertension treatment and control in the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis (MESA). Am J Hypertens. 2004;17:963–70. - PubMed
    1. Lunsford SL, Simpson KS, Chavin KD, Menching KJ, Miles LG, Shilling LM, et al. Racial disparities in living kidney donation: Is there a lack of willing donors or an excess of medically unsuitable candidates? Transplantation. 2006;82:876–81. - PubMed
    1. Rodrigue JR, Cornell DL, Kaplan B, Howard RJ. Patients’ willingness to talk to others about living kidney donation. Prog Transplant. 2008;18:25–31. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms