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. 2023 Jan 1;183(1):22-30.
doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.5431.

Organ Donation and Transplants During Major US Motorcycle Rallies

David C Cron  1   2 , Christopher M Worsham  3   4   5 , Joel T Adler  2   6 , Charles F Bray  3 , Anupam B Jena  3   4   7
Affiliations

Organ Donation and Transplants During Major US Motorcycle Rallies

David C Cron et al. JAMA Intern Med. .

Abstract

Importance: Large-scale motorcycle rallies attract thousands of attendees and are associated with increased trauma-related morbidity and mortality.

Objective: To examine the association of major US motorcycle rallies with the incidence of organ donation and transplants.

Design, setting, and participants: This population-based, retrospective cross-sectional study used data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients for deceased organ donors aged 16 years or older involved in a motor vehicle crash and recipients of organs from these donors from March 2005 to September 2021.

Exposure: Dates of 7 large US motorcycle rallies and regions near these events.

Main outcomes and measures: The main outcomes were incidence of motor vehicle crash-related organ donation and number of patients receiving a solid organ transplant from these donors. An event study design was used to estimate adjusted rates of organ donation during the dates of 7 major US motorcycle rallies compared with the 4 weeks before and after the rallies in rally-affected and rally-unaffected (control) regions. Donor and recipient characteristics and metrics of organ quality were compared between rally and nonrally dates.

Results: The study included 10 798 organ donors (70.9% male; mean [SD] age, 32.5 [13.7] years) and 35 329 recipients of these organs (64.0% male; 49.3 [15.5] years). During the rally dates, there were 406 organ donors and 1400 transplant recipients. During the 4 weeks before and after the rallies, there were 2332 organ donors and 7714 transplant recipients. Donors and recipients during rally and nonrally dates were similar in demographic and clinical characteristics, measures of organ quality, measures of recipient disease severity, and recipient waiting time. During rallies, there were 21% more organ donors per day (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 1.21; 95% CI, 1.09-1.35; P = .001) and 26% more transplant recipients per day (IRR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.12-1.42; P < .001) compared with the 4 weeks before and after the rallies in the regions where they were held.

Conclusions and relevance: In this cross-sectional study, major motorcycle rallies in the US were associated with increased incidence of organ donation and transplants. While safety measures to minimize morbidity and mortality during motorcycle rallies should be prioritized, this study showed the downstream association of these events with organ donation and transplants.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Cron reported receiving grant support from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr Worsham reported receiving consulting fees unrelated to this work from Alosa Health, Analysis Group, Chronius, FVC Health, NuvoAir, Philips, Simbo, Atheneum, Guidepoint, and Tell Health and receiving income from book rights from Doubleday Books. Dr Adler reported receiving grant support from the ASTS-CareDx Enhancing Organ Donation and Transplantation Grant and from the NIDDK, NIH. Dr Jena reported receiving personal fees from Bioverativ, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Janssen, Edwards Life Sciences, Amgen, Eisai, Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Sage Pharmaceuticals, Precision Health Economics, Analysis Group; receiving personal fees from hosting the podcast Freakonomics, MD and from book rights to Doubleday Books; and receiving speaking fees from All American Entertainment and the Harry Walker Agency outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Locations of Motorcycle Rallies and Their Corresponding Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) Regions
Locations of the 7 motorcycle rallies included in our analysis: Sturgis Motorcycle Rally (Sturgis, South Dakota), Daytona Bike Week (Daytona Beach, Florida), Laconia Motorcycle Week (Laconia, New Hampshire), Myrtle Beach Bike Week Spring Rally (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina), Atlantic Beach Bikefest (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina), Republic of Texas Biker Rally (Austin, Texas), and Bikes Blues & BBQ (Fayetteville, Arkansas). The OPTN regions are outlined in bold black lines, and the regions containing the motorcycle rallies are shaded.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Adjusted Number of Organ Donors and Organ Transplants per Region per Day by Weeks Relative to Motorcycle Rally
Data are from the event study model described in the Methods section. Control regions were regions distant from the rally region. Week 0 indicates the week of the motorcycle rally. Error bars indicate 95% CIs.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • Saving Lives Out of Motorcycle Tragedies.
    Zhang GY, Katz MH. Zhang GY, et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2023 Jan 1;183(1):8. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.5515. JAMA Intern Med. 2023. PMID: 36441521 No abstract available.

References

    1. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. National data reports. Accessed February 1, 2022. https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/data/view-data-reports/national-data/.
    1. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration . Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data tables. Accessed April 27, 2022. https://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx.
    1. National Center for Statistics and Analysis National Highway Traffic Safety Administration . Motorcycles: 2019 data (Traffic Safety Facts. Report No. DOT HS 813 112). 2021. Accessed October 6, 2022. https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/Publication/813112
    1. Dickert-Conlin S, Elder T, Moore B. Donorcycles: motorcycle helmet laws and the supply of organ donors. J Law Econ. 2011;54(4):907-935. doi:10.1086/661256 - DOI
    1. South Dakota Department of Transportation. Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Traffic Counts 2011–2020. August 2020. Accessed March 22, 2022. https://dot.sd.gov/media/documents/traffic/2020RallyTrafficReport.pdf