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. 2022 Jan 28;11(3):698.
doi: 10.3390/jcm11030698.

Living Kidney Donor Knowledge of Provided Information and Informed Consent: The PRINCE Study

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Living Kidney Donor Knowledge of Provided Information and Informed Consent: The PRINCE Study

Emerentia Q W Spoon et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Background: Informed consent for living kidney donation is paramount, as donors are healthy individuals undergoing surgery for the benefit of others. The informed consent process for living kidney donors is heterogenous, and the question concerns how well they are actually informed. Knowledge assessments, before and after donor education, can form the basis for a standardized informed consent procedure for live kidney donation.

Methods: In this prospective, a multicenter national cohort study conducted in all eight kidney transplant centers in The Netherlands, we assessed the current status of the informed consent practice for live donor nephrectomy. All of the potential living kidney donors in the participating centers were invited to participate. They completed a pop quiz during their first outpatient appointment (Cohort A). Living kidney donors completed the same pop quiz upon admission for donor nephrectomy (Cohort B).

Results: In total, 656 pop quizzes were completed (417 in Cohort A, and 239 in Cohort B). The average donor knowledge score was 7.0/25.0 (±3.9, range 0-18) in Cohort A, and 10.5/25.0 (±2.8, range 0-17.5) in Cohort B. Cohort B scored significantly higher on overall knowledge, preparedness, and the individual item scores (p < 0.0001), except for the long-term complications (p = 0.91).

Conclusions: Donor knowledge generally improves during the live donor workup, but it is still quite disappointing. Long-term complications, especially, deserve more attention during living kidney donor education.

Keywords: education; health literacy; informed consent; kidney donation; live donor nephrectomy; living donation; long-term risk; transplantation.

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Conflict of interest statement

F.J.M.F.D. has received consultancy fees and speaker fees from Astellas, Sandoz, Chiesi, Baxter, and TEVA. The other authors of this manuscript have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose. All authors confirm that they have read and complied with the policies on competing interests and the license to publication. The corresponding authors attest that all the listed authors meet the authorship criteria, and that no others meeting the criteria have been omitted.

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