Living Kidney Donations Rare Among Low-Income Americans: Study

Research identifies disparities in kidney donation between Americans from high and low-income backgrounds.

The research, led by Jagbir Gill from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, found a drastic decrease in the number of living kidney donations in recent times. Their findings predicate high cost of kidney donation as a primary reason for shortage of living organ donations in low-income families.

This raises the need for more efficient plans and policies to make organ donations simpler and accessible. The experts looked at the average household income and overall number of living organ donations between 1999 and 2010 in both high and low-income households across the country.

Their analysis revealed lower rates of living donations owing to high cost of the procedure in poor income families than in high-income population. The difference became more prominent in recent years than in the past.

"Since 2004, lower income populations experienced a large decline in living donation, while living donation in higher income populations was more stable," said Gill in a news release.

"These results suggest that financial barriers to living donation need to be further addressed in order to make it easier for patients to consider and pursue living kidney donation," he adds.

According to the data by the National kidney Foundation, every year over 100,602 patients in the U.S. await kidney transplants. During 2013, around 9,314 of the total 14,029 kidney transplants came from deceased donor and 4,715 were from living donors.

Clinical trials suggest living donor organ transplant is more beneficial in improving survival rates in recipients.  The current study also condones living kidney donations that are known to improve quality of life, survival and reduce expenditure on health care by $100,000. The average estimated cost of kidney donation is between $5,000 and $20,000.

More information is available online in the Journal of American Society of Nephrology.