Sharing the Gift of Life: An Intervention to Increase Organ and Tissue Donation for American Indians

Abstract

Growing waiting lists for organ transplantation require attention to populations with a high demand for organs but a low donation rate. American Indians experience a high demand for kidney transplantation because of an epidemic of type 2 diabetes, yet donation consent rates are low in this group. To design and evaluate an educational intervention to increase the intention to serve as an organ or tissue donor among American Indians. Sharing the Gift of Life was designed for reservation-dwelling American Indians living in the Northern Plains area of the United States. The intervention addressed important cultural traditions and was derived from the Transtheoretical Model of behavior change. A 2-stage descriptive evaluation design was used. Two evaluation groups were included. American Indian members of a project advisory council served as cultural expert evaluators (stage 1). Northern Plains reservation-dwelling American Indian adults were community member evaluators (stage 2). Stage 1 used an Educational Materials Review Form. Stage 2 used an adapted community member evaluation tool. The cultural expert evaluation was strong. All items met the < 3.0 mean acceptability criterion (range 1.93-2.89). Content validity indices met criterion of 0.80 for the overall evaluation and for all items. Cultural specific changes to the materials were suggested. After revision, community member evaluation was favorable. Mean evaluation scores met criterion and content validity indices were acceptable. Pronunciation of traditional language was corrected in the video. Sharing the Gift of Life is a promising intervention that should undergo efficacy testing.