Black women undergoing hemodialysis are less likely to want a living donor kidney transplantation (LDKT), despite being more likely to receive unsolicited offers for kidney transplant, compared with black men, according to a study published online in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Avrum Gillespie, M.D., from Temple University in Philadelphia, and colleagues administered the Dialysis Patient Transplant Questionnaire to 116 hemodialysis patients (including potentially eligible and ineligible LDKT candidates). Participants were recruited from two urban, predominantly black hemodialysis units.
The researchers found that, compared with men, women were less likely to want LDKT (58.5 versus 87.5 percent; P = 0.003), despite being significantly more likely to receive unsolicited offers for kidney transplant (73.2 versus 43.2 percent; P = 0.02). The likelihood of being evaluated for a kidney transplant was also lower for women (28.3 versus 52.2 percent; P = 0.01).
Continue Reading
After adjustment for factors known to influence transplant decisions, gender was a statistically significant predictor of wanting LDKT (women versus men odds ratio, 0.13). The mode of administration of questionnaire (completed independently, with assistance, or entirely by researcher) did not bias these results.
“In contrast to previous studies, our study found that black women were less likely to want LDKT compared to black men,” the authors write.
