Interventions for Increasing Solid Organ Donor Registration: Editorial Summary of a Cochrane Review

Abstract

End-stage organ failure is estimated to affect more than 6 million people worldwide,1,2 resulting in a global need to increase the number of solid organs available for transplant to help save lives. One possible solution is to encourage the general public to register a preference for deceased organ donation via a donor registry. However, despite public support for organ donation being generally high (~90%), many donor registries have less than 40% of the general population registered.3 Previous systematic reviews have focused on understanding people’s attitudes toward organ donation,4,5 which has resulted in the over-reliance on educational solutions to increase rates of registration.