Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Transplant. Jun 18, 2023; 13(4): 190-200
Published online Jun 18, 2023. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v13.i4.190
Randomized intervention to assess the effectiveness of an educational video on organ donation intent among Hispanics in the New York metropolitan area
Renee Pekmezaris, Edgardo Cigaran, Vidhi Patel, Damian Clement, Christine L Sardo Molmenti, Ernesto Molmenti
Renee Pekmezaris, Edgardo Cigaran, Vidhi Patel, Damian Clement, Christine L Sardo Molmenti, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY 11030, United States
Ernesto Molmenti, Department of Nephrology, Northwell Health/Zucker School of Medicine at Hosftra, Manhasset, NY 11030, United States
Author contributions: Pekmezaris R, Patel V, and Molmenti E designed and supervised the study; Cigaran E conducted data analysis and interpretation, and drafted the manuscript; Pekmezaris R, Patel V, Molmenti E, and Cigaran E conducted a literature review; Clement D contributed to data analysis and interpretation; Sardo Molmenti CL revised the manuscript critically for intellectual content; Molmenti E and Pekmezaris R approved the final version of the paper.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board at Northwell Health (Approval No. 19-0009).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardians, provided informed written consent before study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: The data used in this study will be made available upon request to qualified researchers for the purposes of reproducing the results or for further analysis.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—a checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—a checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Edgardo Cigaran, MS, Research Fellow, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, 600 Community Dr, Manhasset, NY 11030, United States. edgardo.cigaran@gmail.com
Received: March 2, 2023
Peer-review started: March 2, 2023
First decision: April 13, 2023
Revised: May 4, 2023
Accepted: May 19, 2023
Article in press: May 19, 2023
Published online: June 18, 2023
Processing time: 105 Days and 16.7 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Research has documented barriers to organ donation, including: (1) Bodily integrity; (2) medical skepticism; (3) “ick”-discomfort toward the process; and (4) “jinx”-superstitions regarding preparations toward death. Furthermore, emotional video messaging is impactful in increasing the intention to register. While the emotional video messaging used in the present study was found to increase the intention to register among the Hispanic population.

Research motivation

Given the backdrop of shortages of organ donations and the benefits of a more diverse donor pool. In New York City (NYC), a place renowned for its diverse population, our goal was to evaluate the effects of a brief educational intervention meant to increase organ donation intentions. Additionally, we wanted to learn more about the attitudes and beliefs of Hispanic inhabitants of NYC toward organ donation as well as the predictors of it.

Research objectives

We hypothesized that an educational video addressing commonly cited barriers to organ donation would help ease resistance and change attitudes regarding intentions to donate.

Research methods

Data were collected using the online crowdsourcing platform CloudResearch targeting NYC residents. This study was approved by our Institutional IRB. Once consent was obtained and participants entered the survey, respondents were asked to report on demographic variables and their general impression of organ donation after death. Participants were then assigned at random to the video First condition, in which they saw a brief movie on organ donation before responding to the survey questions, or the Video Last condition, in which they answered the survey questions first and then watched the video. The five-minute intervention implemented was originally developed, tested, and found to significantly increase donation rates in a general population. The video presented a dialogue among twenty ethnically diverse individuals in terms of age and their experiences regarding organ donation, including donors, recipients, and loved ones of those who died while waiting for organ donation. Furthermore, the video has been found to elicit emotional responses and address concerns that are common barriers to donor registration.

Research results

Using a binomial logistic regression, the analysis provides information about the relationship between the effects of an emotive video and the intention to donate among Hispanic participants who were not already registered as donors. The willingness to go back and register was found to be significantly more probable for those who watched the emotive video before being asked about their organ donation opinions [OR: 2.05, 95%CI: 1.06-3.97] (as presented in Table 3). Motivations for participation in organ donation were also captured in Table 4, with many stating the importance of messages coming from “people like me” and a message that highlights “the welfare of those in need”. Overall, the findings suggest that using an emotive video that addresses organ donation barriers to prompt organ donation intentions can be effective among the Hispanic populous. Future studies should explore using targeted messaging that resonates with specific cultural groups, highlighting the welfare of others.

Research conclusions

The wide variations in organ donation rates across the United States present both a problem and a chance. Our analysis has demonstrated that future campaigns must concentrate on densely populated, diversified locations with low donor rates if they are to boost organ donation registration. Educational initiatives that elicit strong emotions, address donor concerns, and take into account potential donors’ preferences must be conducted to increase the overall registration rate. By implementing these actions, we have the potential to significantly alter the situation and save the lives of thousands of people who pass away each year while awaiting organ transplants.

Research perspectives

Future research should examine how video intervention affects actual donor registration to have a more thorough understanding of its effects. Although we used attention checks to confirm the accuracy of the data, it is advised that future research replicate our findings in various contexts.