BACKGROUND:

Studies of non-directed donors (NDDs) have shown comparable psychosocial functioning to traditional donors. Within NDDs there are some that come forward in response to community solicitation such as newspaper ads or donor drives. It has been suggested that subtle coercion might be occurring in such NDDs. One successful organization in Brooklyn provides about 50 NDDs per year for recipients within that community. The donors answer ads in local papers and attend donor drives. This is the first study to evaluate the physical and emotional outcomes of community-solicited NDDs in comparison to traditional NDDs who come from varied communities and are not responding to a call for donation. An assessment of coercion was utilized as well.

METHODS:

Community NDD donors who responded to ads or attended a donor drive (n=9) and ended up donating at our center were evaluated and compared to traditional NDD donors (n=16) that donated around the same time. Participants completed surveys: The SF-36 was used for psychosocial and functional outcomes after donation. The MacArthur Admission Experience Survey-Short Form 1 (MacArthur AES) was used to evaluate coercion.

RESULTS:

Community NDD donors and traditional NDD donors in this study were similar in terms of gender, race, age, and time after donation. On the SF-36 survey the two groups reported similar physical and emotional wellbeing after donation (p=0.3 to 0.9). No statistical significance was found in any of the SF-36 subgroupings. On the Coercion tool (MacArthur AES) the two groups did not differ at all and in fact the responses were identical. Pressure to donate or coercion was not felt in either group.

CONCLUSION:

In summary our study is the first ever to indicate that community-solicited donors fare comparably with traditional NDDs, deriving the same sense of well being and functioning post-donation. There was no tendency towards experiencing greater coercion in the community-solicited donors.

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