Despite the known benefits of living donor kidney transplantation, the rate of living kidney donation in Canada has not increased. Potential reasons include the lack of financial neutrality and the financial burden that is experienced by living kidney donors (LKD).

We conducted a cross-sectional study examining demographic variables associated with financial well-being collected from psychosocial evaluations of LKD candidates at our institution from Jan 1 2006-Dec 31 2016. The proportion of LKD candidates, by quintile of the Ontario Marginalization Index (OMI), was also calculated. The OMI uses census data to capture levels of marginalization.

There were 396 donor candidates with completed psychosocial evaluations. The demographic variables of the LDK candidates are shown in the Table. Over 75% of LKD had either private/non-private drug coverage, and 78% of LKD were employed. Almost 50% of LKD candidates had completed a post-secondary diploma/degree. 97.2% of LKD were deemed to have an average level of financial support, with 80.1% of LKD having completed financial arrangements prior to anticipated kidney donation. Only 10.8% of LKD candidates were from the lowest (most marginalized) OMI quintile (Figure).

The characteristics of LKD candidates at our centre suggest that a large proportion of potential LKD have average or above-average financial well-being. Our study demonstrates that only a small subset of LKD candidates are from the highest (most marginalized) OMI. This suggests that LKD candidates with poor financial well-being or from more marginalized populations may not coming forward due to the potential financial burden associated with living kidney donation.

CITATION INFORMATION: Singh S., Bannerman G., Yantsis A., Liu M., Gumabay F., Famure O. Evaluation of Financial Well-Being of Living Kidney Donor Candidates Am J Transplant. 2017;17 (suppl 3).

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