TY - JOUR
T1 - Electronic messaging and communication with living kidney donors
AU - Ruck, Jessica M.
AU - Zhou, Sheng
AU - Thomas, Alvin G.
AU - Cramm, Shannon L.
AU - Massie, Allan B.
AU - Montgomery, John R.
AU - Berger, Jonathan C.
AU - Henderson, Macey L.
AU - Segev, Dorry L.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by grant numbers R01DK096008, K01DK101677, and K24DK10182801 from the National Institute of Health (NIH). The analyses described here are the responsibility of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. JR and DS are supported by a Doris Duke Clinical Research Mentorship grant. The data reported here have been supplied by the Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation (MMRF) as the contractor for the SRTR. The interpretation and reporting of these data are the responsibility of the author(s) and in no way should be seen as an official policy of or interpretation by the SRTR or the U.S. Government.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
PY - 2018/2
Y1 - 2018/2
N2 - New regulations require living kidney donor (LKD) follow-up for 2 years, but donor retention remains poor. Electronic communication (eg, text messaging and e-mail) might improve donor retention. To explore the possible impact of electronic communication, we recruited LKDs to participate in an exploratory study of communication via telephone, e-mail, or text messaging postdonation; communication through this study was purely optional and did not replace standard follow-up. Of 69 LKDs recruited, 3% requested telephone call, 52% e-mail, and 45% text messaging. Telephone response rate was 0%; these LKDs were subsequently excluded from analysis. Overall response rates with e-mail or text messaging at 1 week, 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years were 94%, 87%, 81%, 72%, and 72%. Lower response rates were seen in African Americans, even after adjusting for age, sex, and contact method (incidence rate ratio (IRR) nonresponse 2.075.8116.36, P =.001). Text messaging had higher response rates than e-mail (IRR nonresponse 0.110.280.71, P =.007). Rates of nonresponse were similar by sex (IRR 0.68, P =.4) and age (IRR 1.00, P >.9). In summary, LKDs strongly preferred electronic messaging over telephone and were highly responsive 2 years postdonation, even in this nonrequired, nonincentivized exploratory research study. These electronic communication tools can be automated and may improve regulatory compliance and postdonation care.
AB - New regulations require living kidney donor (LKD) follow-up for 2 years, but donor retention remains poor. Electronic communication (eg, text messaging and e-mail) might improve donor retention. To explore the possible impact of electronic communication, we recruited LKDs to participate in an exploratory study of communication via telephone, e-mail, or text messaging postdonation; communication through this study was purely optional and did not replace standard follow-up. Of 69 LKDs recruited, 3% requested telephone call, 52% e-mail, and 45% text messaging. Telephone response rate was 0%; these LKDs were subsequently excluded from analysis. Overall response rates with e-mail or text messaging at 1 week, 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years were 94%, 87%, 81%, 72%, and 72%. Lower response rates were seen in African Americans, even after adjusting for age, sex, and contact method (incidence rate ratio (IRR) nonresponse 2.075.8116.36, P =.001). Text messaging had higher response rates than e-mail (IRR nonresponse 0.110.280.71, P =.007). Rates of nonresponse were similar by sex (IRR 0.68, P =.4) and age (IRR 1.00, P >.9). In summary, LKDs strongly preferred electronic messaging over telephone and were highly responsive 2 years postdonation, even in this nonrequired, nonincentivized exploratory research study. These electronic communication tools can be automated and may improve regulatory compliance and postdonation care.
KW - communication
KW - electronic messaging
KW - follow-up
KW - living kidney donor
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U2 - 10.1111/ctr.13184
DO - 10.1111/ctr.13184
M3 - Article
C2 - 29281129
AN - SCOPUS:85041485051
SN - 0902-0063
VL - 32
JO - Clinical Transplantation
JF - Clinical Transplantation
IS - 2
M1 - e13184
ER -