Dana H. Z. Robinson

Project ACTS: An Intervention to Increase Organ and Tissue Donation Intentions Among African Americans:

This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of Project ACTS: About Choices in Transplantation and Sharing, which was developed to increase readiness for organ and tissue donation among African American adults. Nine churches (N = 425 participants) were randomly assigned to receive donation education materials currently available to consumers (control group) or Project ACTS educational materials (intervention group). The primary outcomes assessed at 1-year follow-up were readiness to express donation intentions via one’s driver’s license, donor card, and discussion with family. Results indicate a significant interaction between condition and time on readiness to talk to family such that participants in the intervention group were 1.64 times more likely to be in action or maintenance at follow-up than were participants in the control group (p = .04). There were no significant effects of condition or condition by time on readiness to be identified as a donor on one’s driver’s license and by carrying a donor card. Project ACTS may be an effective tool for stimulating family discussion of donation intentions among African Americans although additional research is needed to explore how to more effectively affect written intentions.

Understanding the Role of Clergy in African American Organ and Tissue Donation Decision-Making

Objectives. To describe and understand the attitudes, beliefs, and experiences towards organ and tissue donation among African American clergy in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The secondary objective is to understand what messages clergy are providing to their parishioners relative to organ and tissue donation, and what their perceived role is in donation education. Design. A qualitative study in which African American clergy (n=26) participated in four focus groups. Results. African American clergy, though generally supportive of organ and tissue donation in principle, have serious reservations about donation due to perceived inequalities in the donation and transplantation system. The clergy did not personally hold religious concerns about donation, but expressed that these concerns were a major barrier to donation among their parishioners. None of the clergy knew the written position that their religion took on donation; they acknowledged the need for more education for them and their parishioners on this topic. They also felt that as religious leaders, they could play an important role in promoting organ and tissue donation among African American parishioners. Conclusions. African American clergy and religious leaders may play an important role towards improving willingness to donate among African American parishioners, but more education and advocacy is needed to prepare them for this role.

The Inclusion of African-American Study Participants in Web-Based Research Studies: Viewpoint

The use of Web-based methods for research recruitment and intervention delivery has greatly increased as Internet usage continues to grow. These Internet-based strategies allow for researchers to quickly reach more people. African-Americans are underrepresented in health research studies. Due to this, African-Americans get less benefit from important research that could address the disproportionate health outcomes they face. Web-based research studies are one promising way to engage more African-Americans and build trust with the African-American community. With African-Americans’ increasing access to the Internet using mobile phones and other mobile phone technologies, we advocate for efforts to increase the representation of African-Americans in research studies by using the Internet as a recruitment tool and conclude with recommendations that support this goal.

Understanding African American’s Religious Beliefs and Organ Donation Intentions

African Americans are overrepresented on the organ transplant waiting list and underrepresented among organ and tissue donors. One of the most highly noted reasons for lack of donation is the perception that donation is contrary to religious beliefs. The purpose of this cross-sectional study is to explore the complexities of religion (beliefs, religiosity, and religious involvement) and its association with willingness to donate and the written expression of donation intentions. Findings from a sample of 505 African American participants suggest that religion is a multidimensional construct and results differ depending on how the construct is measured and operationalized.

Testing the utility of a modified organ donation model among African American adults

African Americans are overrepresented on the organ transplant waiting list because they are disproportionately impacted by certain health conditions that potentially warrant a life-saving transplant. While the African American need for transplantation is considerably high, organ and tissue donation rates are comparatively low, resulting in African Americans spending more than twice the amount of time on the national transplant waiting list as compared to people of other racial/ethnic backgrounds. There are a multitude of factors that contribute to the reluctance expressed by African Americans with respect to organ donation. This study proposes the use of an adaptation of the Organ Donation Model to explore the ways in which knowledge, trust in the donation/allocation process, and religious beliefs impact African American donation decision making. Bivariate and path analyses demonstrated that alignment with religious beliefs was the greatest driving factor with respect to attitudes towards donation; attitudes were significantly associated with donation intentions; and knowledge is directly associated with intentions to serve as a potential deceased organ donor. The significance of these variables speaks to the importance of their inclusion in a model that focuses on the African American population and offers new direction for more effective donation education efforts.

Exploring Donotion-related Knowledge Attitudes, Beliefs and Distrust Among African Americans

UNLABELLED Within the field of organ donation, multiple studies have shown differences in patterns of trust, however, it is unclear which elements are significantly related to donation decision making among African Americans. This study sought to disentangle the construct of trust by parceling out measures related to the healthcare system, the donation/allocation system, and the physician; and determine the relationship of these dimensions to attitudes toward organ and tissue donation. Cross-sectional survey data were gathered from 585 African American adults residing in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Results indicate that varying dimensions of trust function differently in their influence on attitudes toward donation. Our findings suggest that trust is critical to donation decision-making and should be measured with a multidimensional approach, particularly among racial/ethnic groups with complex histories with the healthcare system. This study underlines the need for a more tailored, individualized approach to promoting organ and tissue donation among African Americans. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We also thank Rianot Amzat, Mohua Basu and Rhonda DeLaremore for their assistance with data collection, cleaning, entry, and analysis.

Strategies To Facilitate Organ Donation among African Americans

The greatest challenge for transplantation is the significant disparity in the number of organs available relative to the demand. African Americans in particular are disproportionately represented on the national transplant waiting list for a myriad of reasons. Although accounting for merely 13% of