Video intervention to increase decedent tissue donation by next‐of‐kin

Abstract

Over 60% of decedents in the United States have not given first‐person consent for tissue donation; thus, receiving consent from next‐of‐kin (NOK) is a potentially powerful way to improve access to donor tissues. As a more informed NOK is more likely to consent to tissue donation, we introduced the delivery of two alternative videos that discuss the benefits of donation as part of the donation request. One was an animated, freely available video developed by the US Health Resources and Services Administration, and the other was a customized interview‐based video made in partnership with the Nevada Donor Network. We focused our analysis on studying the effect on White donation rates; many historical factors (in the United States) make the kind of simple, minimal intervention we implemented unlikely to be sufficient to encourage non‐White donation. We found in the field experiment that NOKs were more likely to donate if they viewed either video but that the two videos were not statistically different in their effect. As those who viewed a video may have been predisposed to donate, we additionally performed an online experiment that does not suffer from this endogeneity concern. We found results parallel to those in the field, and based on written comments by participants, we found suggestive evidence that the informational content in the videos was the mechanism that led to increased donation willingness and not emotional connectivity. We have identified a cheap and easy‐to‐implement intervention that could improve tissue availability across the nation.