African-Americans more likely to donate kidney to family member
Family matters, especially when it comes to African-Americans and living kidney donation. In a study conducted at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, researchers found that African-Americans donate almost exclusively to family members for living kidney transplants, as compared to Caucasians.
The retrospective study, published in the September/October online issue of the journal Clinical Transplantation, compared medical records of all former successful kidney donors at Wake Forest Baptist between Jan. 1, 1991, and Dec. 31, 2009. The purpose of the study was to characterize differences in donor and recipient relationships between African-American and Caucasian living kidney donors.
"African-Americans are overrepresented in the dialysis population and they are underrepresented among those who receive living donor kidney transplants, the best option for long-term treatment of kidney disease," said Amber Reeves-Daniel, D.O., lead author of the study and medical director of the Living Kidney Donor Program at Wake Forest Baptist. "The more we can understand what contributes to people's willingness to donate one of their kidneys, the better job we can do of educating potential living donors about the need and allay fears about the risks."
The study sample consisted of 73 African-American and 324 Caucasian living kidney donors. African-American donors were more likely to be related to the transplant recipient than Caucasians. Individuals were considered to have a familial relationship if a blood relation existed or if there was a familial relationship, including in-law relationships.
In addition, the study found that African-American donors were more likely to donate to their parents compared to Caucasians, and were slightly less likely to participate in parent-to-child donation.
By comparison, Caucasian donors were more likely to be unrelated to the recipient than African-American donors.
Reeves-Daniel said one of the most surprising findings was that the majority of African- American kidney donors were men and younger than the white donors. "Adult African- American dialysis patients are typically younger than white dialysis patients and this may explain, in part, why African-American children are more often able to donate to their parents," she said.
Future studies exploring cultural differences and family dynamics may provide targeted recruitment strategies for both African-American and Caucasian living kidney donors, Reeves-Daniel said. Unrelated living kidney transplantation appears to be a potential growth area for living kidney donation in African-Americans, she said.
Provided by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
-
African-American Canadians who receive kidney transplants fare better than those in US
Oct 29, 2008 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Talking increases kidney donation
Oct 29, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
1 in 7 organ donors concerned about life and health insurance
Jul 02, 2007 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Genes, not race, determine donor kidney survival
May 10, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Aboriginal children less likely to receive kidney transplants
May 24, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Motion perception revisited: High Phi effect challenges established motion perception assumptions
Apr 23, 2013 |
3 / 5 (2) |
2
-
Anything you can do I can do better: Neuromolecular foundations of the superiority illusion (Update)
Apr 02, 2013 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
5
-
The visual system as economist: Neural resource allocation in visual adaptation
Mar 30, 2013 |
5 / 5 (2) |
9
-
Separate lives: Neuronal and organismal lifespans decoupled
Mar 27, 2013 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
0
-
Sizing things up: The evolutionary neurobiology of scale invariance
Feb 28, 2013 |
4.8 / 5 (10) |
14
-
Classical and Quantum Mechanics via Lie algebras
Apr 15, 2011
- More from Physics Forums - Independent Research
More news stories
Survey points out deficiencies in addictions training for medical residents
A 2012 survey of internal medicine residents at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) – one of the nation's leading teaching hospitals – found that more than half rated the training they had received in addiction and other ...
Other
2 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Early use of tracheostomy for mechanically ventilated patients not associated with improved survival
For critically ill patients receiving mechanical ventilation, early tracheostomy (within the first 4 days after admission) was not associated with an improvement in the risk of death within 30 days compared to patients who ...
Other
May 21, 2013 |
not rated yet |
0
Decisions to forgo life support may depend heavily on the ICU where patients are treated
The decision to limit life support in patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) appears to be significantly influenced by physician practices and/or the culture of the hospital, suggests new findings from researchers at the ...
Other
May 21, 2013 |
not rated yet |
0
People on higher incomes are happier with new knees
Knee replacement surgery is a very common procedure. However, it does not always resolve function or pain in all the recipients of new knees. A study by Robert Barrack, MD and his colleagues from the Washington University ...
Other
May 21, 2013 |
not rated yet |
0
New search engine finds rare diagnoses
Doctors are trained to think "common disease" when they meet patients in their practices, and as they rarely or never meet a rare disease, it often takes many years to reach the right diagnosis. A new search tool called FindZebra ...
Other
May 21, 2013 |
not rated yet |
0
Systematic screening of med adherence will ID barriers
(HealthDay)—Implementation of systematic monitoring for medication adherence will allow for identification of barriers to adherence and tailoring of interventions, according to a viewpoint piece published ...
Baby's life saved with groundbreaking 3-D printed device that restored his breathing
Every day, their baby stopped breathing, his collapsed bronchus blocking the crucial flow of air to his lungs. April and Bryan Gionfriddo watched helplessly, just praying that somehow the dire predictions weren't true.
'Boys will be boys' in US, but not in Asia
A new study shows there is a gender gap when it comes to behavior and self-control in American young children – one that does not appear to exist in children in Asia.
Swine flu pandemic of 2009 more deadly for younger adults, study finds
As the world prepares for what may be the next pandemic strain of influenza virus, in the H7N9 bird flu, a new UC Irvine study reveals that the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic was deadliest for people under the age of 65, while ...
American cancer society celebrates 100 years of progress
(HealthDay)—The American Cancer Society, which is celebrating on Wednesday a century of fighting a disease once viewed as a death sentence, is making a pledge to put itself out of business.
CT detects twice as many lung cancers as X-ray at initial screening exam
National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) investigators also conclude that the 20 percent reduction in lung cancer mortality with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) versus chest X-ray (CXR) screening previously reported in the ...