The authors regret that the above abstract was incomplete and is now correctly posted below. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
Introduction
In low- and middle-income countries, kidney transplantation is heavily dependent on a living kidney donor. In the past five years less than five kidney transplants have been performed per year in Jamaica. A paucity of potential living kidney donors has been identified as one of the barriers to kidney transplantation in Jamaica. This study explores possible reasons for this.
Methods
The survey was circulated in a Google form via WhatsApp and on Facebook from August 24th to October 9th, 2023. Univariate and bivariate analyses were performed using Microsoft Excel and appropriate p values were calculated.
Results
There were 206 participants. 78.6% were females and 21.4% were males. 39.3% of the participants were >40 to 60 years old. 70.4% had a bachelor’s degree or higher level of education and 60.2% were working full time. Health care professionals constituted 29.6% of the participants. Only 8.7% of all participants thought that they were at a high risk of developing kidney failure after kidney donation, however, 48.6% did not know or thought that it was possible to develop kidney failure after donation. 23.3% of all participants reported having a close relative or spouse with kidney disease whilst only 2.9% reported having been asked by someone to be a kidney donor.
39.3% of the participants reported willingness to donate a kidney to a close relative or spouse whilst 16.5% were only willing to donate to their child. 70.9% of all participants were willing to donate their kidneys after death. 10.2% of the participants were not willing to donate to a close relative or spouse and 34% said they were unsure. Most common reasons given for not being willing or unsure about kidney donation were need for more education about risks involved, having underlying medical conditions, concern that their remaining kidney will go bad, concern about complications after surgery and reporting that they were too old for surgery.
Health care professionals were more willing to be kidney donors for a close relative or spouse than the other participants at 54.1% of health care professionals versus 33.1% of other participants (p-value = 0.008).
Participants working full time were more willing to donate a kidney than those working part time or who were unemployed (p-value= 0.03).
Conclusions
Approximately 40% of the participants reported willingness to donate a kidney to a close relative or spouse. Health care professionals and participants working full time were more willing to be living kidney donors. Most common reasons given for not being willing or unsure about kidney donation were need for more education about risks involved, having underlying medical conditions, concern that their remaining kidney will go bad, concern about complications after surgery and reporting that they were too old for surgery. This suggests that more education about kidney transplantation is needed in the Jamaican population.
I have no potential conflict of interest to disclose.
DOI of original article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ekir.2024.02.1010