Donation Decisions Research Articles

Nova Scotia's Deemed Consent for Deceased Organ Donation: Family Member Perspectives and Experiences in the ICU Setting.

The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of family members of potential organ donors in the intensive care unit following the change to deemed consent legislation in Nova Scotia. This was a qualitative study with semistructured, in-depth interviews with 17 family members who were asked to make an organ donation decision on behalf of patients admitted to the intensive care unit in Nova Scotia. We analyzed themes using a descriptive approach. Participants were recruited from the organ donation organization in Nova Scotia, Canada. Participant awareness and knowledge of the Human Organ and Tissue Donation Act legislation varied from individuals having no awareness and knowledge of the bill to those who had awareness and optimism that the legislation would be beneficial for increasing organ donation rates in the province. Other themes emerging from the interviews included (1) COVID context, (2) quality of healthcare professional care, (3) family support, and (4) barriers to donation (waiting, consent questionnaire, and patient transfers). The Human Organ and Tissue Donation Act legislation included enhanced support, which was viewed positively by family members. There is a need for continued evaluation as most participants felt it was too early to see the tangible impacts of the newly implemented legislation.

The Closing-the-Gap Effect: Joint Evaluation Leads Donors to Help Charities Farther from Their Goal

Charitable donations can be influenced by the level of progress a cause has made toward its fundraising goal. The current work demonstrates how jointly considering more than one charitable cause along with their goal progress information shifts consumers’ donation decisions. When charitable causes are evaluated jointly (vs. separately), the comparison makes relative need for help more salient and easier to evaluate, leading to greater giving to the cause farther from its goal. A multimethod investigation, involving six preregistered experimental studies, seven supplemental studies, and a large secondary dataset with over 10,000 projects from a micro-crowdfunding platform, provides evidence for this phenomenon and demonstrates that it is robust to variations in the type of cause, the number of projects, and the donor being able to personally complete the goal. Conversely, the effect is eliminated or reversed when charities are evaluated separately (as relative need for help is less salient), when the gap between charities is smaller (as perceptions of relative need for help are diminished), or when for-profit businesses are evaluated (as the context does not heighten sensitivity to need). This work contributes to research on goal progress and evaluation mode and has implications for charitable giving in comparative contexts like crowdfunding.

Does counting change what counts? Quantification fixation biases decision-making

People often rely on numeric metrics to make decisions and form judgments. Numbers can be difficult to process, leading to their underutilization, but they are also uniquely suited to making comparisons. Do people decide differently when some dimensions of a choice are quantified and others are not? We explore this question across 21 preregistered experiments (8 in the main text, N = 9,303; 13 in supplement, N = 13,936) involving managerial, policy, and consumer decisions. Participants face choices that involve tradeoffs (e.g., choosing between employees, one of whom has a higher likelihood of advancement but lower likelihood of retention), and we randomize which dimension of each tradeoff is presented numerically and which is presented qualitatively (using verbal estimates, discrete visualizations, or continuous visualizations). We show that people systematically shift their preferences toward options that dominate on tradeoff dimensions conveyed numerically-a pattern we dub "quantification fixation." Further, we show that quantification fixation has financial consequences-it emerges in incentive-compatible hiring tasks and in charitable donation decisions. We identify one key mechanism that underlies quantification fixation and moderates its strength: When making comparative judgments, which are essential to tradeoff decisions, numeric information is more fluent than non-numeric information. Our findings suggest that when we count, we change what counts.

Corporate Donations in the Context of Covid-19: Insights on Trust and Policy Innovation Opportunities

This study aims to investigate the determinants of corporate donations during the initial phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing on the Portuguese context. It explores the interplay between pandemic-related factors, corporate structures, recipient profiles, and media coverage on the levels of corporate donations. In the absence of publicly available data, a comprehensive database of corporate donations was constructed by analyzing over six thousand news pieces from various media sources between March and May 2020. The database comprises 1171 donations from 709 different institutions. The relationship between corporate donations and multiple variables was examined, including the epidemiological progression of the pandemic, corporate ownership structures, recipient characteristics, and media coverage. Our analysis reveals that during the initial wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Portugal, corporate donations were predominantly made by large companies, primarily directed toward their local regions. Notably, nearly 93% of all donations were allocated to the National Health System. PPEs and hospital equipment were the preferred donation items among the contributing companies. These findings shed light on the factors influencing corporate donation behavior during emergency situations and provide valuable insights into trust levels within the healthcare system. This study contributes to the existing literature by offering a unique exploration of corporate donation behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically in Portugal. The comprehensive dataset and findings provide novel insights into the factors shaping corporate donation decisions during crises. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2024-08-05-010 Full Text: PDF

Inequality as determinant of donation: A theoretical modeling and empirical analysis of Korea.

Recipient financial need is a crucial factor in donation decisions. This study proposes a novel model for determining financial donations, incorporating consumption levels of both donor and recipient within a societal context. Solving our model's utility maximization problem reveals how consumption, donation, and savings are interlinked. Empirical evidence reinforces these findings, aligning with prior research and showing that larger consumption gaps between donors and recipients lead to increased donations. Our findings point towards an inherent altruistic motivation in donation, where elevating the recipient's well-being ultimately enhances the donor's own utility. This reinforces the notion that consideration of the recipient's financial hardship, as reflected by their consumption patterns, is crucial when making donation decisions. Shifting beyond traditional models, this study introduces a groundbreaking approach to financial donations. Our novel model factors in consumption levels of both the donor and recipient, along with the broader societal context, using utility maximization to unravel the intertwined decisions of consumption, donation, and savings. Real-world data validates our model, confirming known donation factors and revealing a key finding: larger disparities in consumption lead to increased giving, suggesting an altruistic drive where helping others boosts personal satisfaction.

Donation Decision-Making Process and Psychological Experiences of Families of Brain-Dead Donors from Turkey

Purpose: Families play a key role in the decision to donate the organs of people with brain death. However, studies on the factors affecting the decisions of families who are expected to make donation decision in a short time after their loss and possible emotional difficulties they experience afterwards are insufficient. In our study, we aimed to investigate the psychological experiences of donor families during and after the donation consent process and the factors affecting them. Methods: Relatives of donors who had brain death at least 6 months ago and gave their consent to be donors were included in the study. Demographic data form, Prolonged Grief Scale (PG-13), Grief and Meaning Reconstruction Inventory (GMRI), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were administered to the participants. Results: In our study, it was found that male gender decreased the risk of depression (OR=0.08, p

Behavioral Intentions to Donate Blood: The Interplay of Personality, Emotional Arousals, and the Moderating Effect of Altruistic versus Egoistic Messages on Young Adults.

Human blood is one of the most valuable and irreplaceable goods in modern medicine. Although its necessity increases daily, one of the most significant challenges we have to overcome is a scarcity of willing blood donors. Volunteer motives and attitudes have been studied for decades, but it is now considered vital to grasp the many aspects that will increase the effectiveness of attracting new blood donors. This study focuses on the impact of emotional arousal produced by advertising messages, as well as the determining role of altruistic and egoistic incentives in deciding behavior. We also incorporated the element of personality to investigate how personality traits influence behavioral intention to donate blood. To this end, a quantitative non-experimental correlational 2 × 2 experimental design (positive vs. negative emotional appeal; altruistic vs. egoistic message) was implemented with the participation of 462 respondents who were shown a total of 12 advertisements (ads) promoting blood donation. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling, with a focus on the direct impacts on donation intentions, the role of emotional arousals and attitude towards the ads as mediators and the moderating effect of the message. The empirical results of our hypotheses revealed that only Honesty-Humility had a strong direct impact on behavioral intention to donate, while Emotionality and Agreeableness did not have any direct effect. On the other hand, attitudes towards advertisements significantly and directly influenced positive and negative emotional arousals, respectively. Furthermore, if we consider these two variables alone, they can be found to exert a direct impact on BI. Mediation analysis showed that attitudes towards the advertisements and emotional arousals partially mediated the relation between Honesty-Humility and Behavioral Intention, thus confirming partial mediation. With respect to Emotionality and Agreeableness, mediation was found to be full since these factors only affected BI through a mediated path, which confirmed full mediation. Furthermore, the moderation analysis highlighted that the type of message (altruistic vs. egoistic) significantly moderated the relationship between both emotional arousals and BI. In particular, positive emotional arousal's influence is strengthened when it is aligned with altruistic messages, while negative emotional arousal's influence is weakened if it follows an altruistic message. These findings illustrate that using positive emotions will be more beneficial for increasing people's donation intentions than bringing negative ones, which implies that message framing has a hidden impact on donation decisions.

Do ethical views of end-of-life patients' family members impact organ donation decisions?

Background: The relatives of patients who decide to donate their loved one's organs experience dilemmas about organ donation and are affected by culture, religion, and individual views.Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the ethical position and personal characteristics of the family members of the patients receiving end-of-life care and their thoughts about organ donation in Turkey.Research design and participants: The study was completed with 158 family members. For data collection, a personal information form and the Ethics Position Questionnaire were used.Ethical considerations: This study was obtained from the ethics committee of the faculty of medicine in Turkey. It was based on voluntary participation, informed consent, confidentiality, and anonymity.Results: All participants in the study shared the same faith and were Muslims. The idealism and relativism tendencies of the participants tended to be high. The number of children, the participants have, participants' status of waiting for an organ transplant, the view that the clergy and health personnel will increase interest in organ donation were identified as factors associated with idealism tendencies. Participants' status of having children, the number of children participants have, participants' status of organ transplant waiting, the view that the health personnel will increase interest in organ donation were identified as factors associated with relativism tendencies (p < 0.0.5).Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated a relationship between participants' idealism and relativism tendencies, among those with a large number of children, waiting for organ donation, advocating for clergy guidance to increase organ donations, and believing healthcare professionals need not guide to increase organ donations. In light of this finding, it may be recommended to establish a multidisciplinary team, including healthcare professionals and clergy, and to inform the society with accurate information to increase the number of organ donations.

Interactive Health Technology Tool for Kidney Living Donor Assessment to Standardize the Informed Consent Process: Usability and Qualitative Content Analysis.

Kidney living donation carries risks, yet standardized information provision regarding nephrectomy risks and psychological impacts for candidates remains lacking. This study assesses the benefit of interactive health technology in improving the informed consent process for kidney living donation. The Kidney Hub institutional open portal offers comprehensive information on kidney disease and donation. Individuals willing to start the kidney living donation process at Helsinki University Hospital (January 2019-January 2022) were invited to use the patient-tailored digital care path (Living Donor Digital Care Path) included in the Kidney Hub. This platform provides detailed donation process information and facilitates communication between health care professionals and patients. eHealth literacy was evaluated via the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS), usability with the System Usability Scale (SUS), and system utility through Likert-scale surveys with scores of 1-5. Qualitative content analysis addressed an open-ended question. The Kidney Hub portal received over 8000 monthly visits, including to its sections on donation benefits (n=1629 views) and impact on donors' lives (n=4850 views). Of 127 living kidney donation candidates, 7 did not use Living Donor Digital Care Path. Users' ages ranged from 20 to 79 years, and they exchanged over 3500 messages. A total of 74 living donor candidates participated in the survey. Female candidates more commonly searched the internet about kidney donation (n=79 female candidates vs n=48 male candidates; P=.04). The mean eHEALS score correlated with internet use for health decisions (r=0.45; P<.001) and its importance (r=0.40; P=.01). Participants found that the Living Donor Digital Care Path was technically satisfactory (mean SUS score 4.4, SD 0.54) and useful but not pivotal in donation decision-making. Concerns focused on postsurgery coping for donors and recipients. Telemedicine effectively educates living kidney donor candidates on the donation process. The Living Donor Digital Care Path serves as a valuable eHealth tool, aiding clinicians in standardizing steps toward informed consent. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04791670; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04791670. RR2-10.1136/bmjopen-2021-051166.

Attitude of Jordanians towards a new enactment for an opt-out organ donation system: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundOrgan donation entails saving or transforming lives through the provision of organs, either from living donors or deceased individuals. In Jordan, low donation rates are attributed to religious misconceptions, limited...

Living Donor Decision-Making and the Complex Interplay of Finances and Other Motivators, Barriers, and Facilitators.

The decision to become a living donor requires consideration of a complex, interactive array of factors that could be targeted for clinical, policy, and educational interventions. Our objective was to assess how financial barriers interact with motivators, other barriers, and facilitators during this process. Data were obtained from a public survey assessing motivators, barriers, and facilitators of living donation. We used multivariable logistic regression and consensus k-means clustering to assess interactions between financial concerns and other considerations in the decision-making process. Among 1592 respondents, the average age was 43; 74% were female and 14% and 6% identified as Hispanic and Black, respectively. Among employed respondents (72%), 40% indicated that they would not be able to donate without lost wage reimbursement. Stronger agreement with worries about expenses and dependent care challenges was associated with not being able to donate without lost wage reimbursement (OR=1.2, 95% CI=1.0-1.3; OR=1.2, 95% CI=1.1-1.3, respectively). Four respondent clusters were identified. Cluster 1 had strong motivators and facilitators with minimal barriers. Cluster 2 had barriers related to health concerns, nervousness, and dependent care. Clusters 3 and 4 had financial barriers. Cluster 3 also had anxiety related to surgery and dependent care. Financial barriers interact primarily with health and dependent care concerns when considering living organ donation. Targeted interventions to reduce financial barriers and improve provider communication regarding donation-related risks are needed.

Why donors give during emergencies—An institutional analysis on government transparency

AbstractThis study employs an institutional approach to examine and explain donor‐giving to a government during emergencies. Using data from 120 countries during Covid‐19 and other sources, we tested a process transparency explanation against a performance transparency perspective. We find that a donor's decision to give to a government during emergencies is likely influenced by the availability and quality of process‐oriented fiscal information, not past performance or impact information of the government. This result indicates that it is important for governments, especially those without proper transparency institutions and practice, to establish reporting measures in process‐oriented information such as revenue sources, spending directions, and debt levels during emergencies. These insights have significant theoretical and policy implications for countries, especially developing countries, to develop government transparency.

The role of critical care nurses in organ and tissue donation: A position statement of the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses

IntroductionAustralian organ and tissue donation rates are low compared to other countries. Acknowledging that donation practices vary across Australia, the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses supported the development of a position statement to explicate critical care nurses’ role in supporting organ and tissue donation. Several Australian peak professional organisations provide guidance to inform and support organ and tissue donation. AimThe aim of this study was to develop a position statement using contemporary Australian research evidence to build upon and complement existing guidance, focussing on the role of critical care nurses in organ and tissue donation in Australian critical care. MethodAn approach similar to a rapid review was used, providing a streamlined approach to synthesising evidence. A comprehensive search using Medical Subject Headings, keywords, and synonyms was undertaken using Medline and CINAHL Complete via EBSCOhost to identify peer-reviewed Australian research evidence about critical care nurses’ role, obligations, expectations, and scope of practice during organ and tissue donation. Narrative synthesis was used to synthesise the research evidence. FindingsThe importance of separating death from organ donation in discussions with family, the timing and the approach to organ donation conversations, and working in collaboration with the DonateLife Donation Specialist Nurses were identified. The importance of understanding family perspectives, caring for families, and collegial support for critical care clinicians were also identified. With the guidance of peak professional organisations, the research evidence was then used to develop practice recommendations for critical care units, leaders, and critical care nurses. Discussion and conclusionThe recommendations explicate the important contribution critical care nurses can make to ensuring timely, sensitive communication, providing high-quality end-of-life care, supporting families irrespective of the donation decision and supporting colleagues from the wider critical care team, thereby optimising the processes related to organ and tissue donation in Australian critical care settings.

“I’m standing next to him, I’m supporting him”—Supporting a loved one with brain cancer to donate their brain: A qualitative study

Abstract Background Brain cancer is a devastating and incurable disease that places a high burden of care on next of kin (NOK). NOK can play a core role in supporting end-of-life planning, including the decision to donate one’s brain after death. Postmortem brain donation is crucial to research. As postmortem programs develop it is important to understand the experiences of NOK as they support a loved one in the donation decision. Methods Thirteen qualitative interviews were completed with NOK of people who had consented to donate their brains to the Mark Hughes Foundation (MHF) Biobank. A thematic analysis was carried out on the transcribed interviews. Results Four central themes were identified: (i) The carer role has additional responsibilities and psychological benefits when brain donation is being considered; (ii) Supporting a loved one to donate requires mutual trust, understanding, and a commitment to honor agency; (iii) Increasing awareness of brain donation is a priority for NOK, and (iv) Brain donation is seen as a natural continuation of the donor’s altruistic values. Conclusions When a person with brain cancer decides to donate their brain to research, their NOK can experience additional burdens and benefits as the NOK–patient relationship evolves. Understanding this evolution and recognizing the importance of trust, advocacy, and altruism provides a guide for the integration of brain donation programs into clinical pathways and a basis for normalizing brain donation as an extension of organ donation frameworks.

Beyond graduation: a survey study exploring drivers of alumni contributions to dermatology residencies.

Philanthropic donations are an increasingly important funding source for academic medical centers. Minimal published data is available about factors that influence alumni donations to residency programs. We performed a cross-sectional analysis of a single-site dermatology and combined internal medicine-dermatology residency programs to assess factors impacting alumni donations. Donors tended to have graduated less recently (only 20% graduating after 2010) and practice in the same region of their alma mater (50%). Respondents preferred funds be allocated to resident needs over needs of medical students. Strategically engaging senior alumni and offering fund allocation opportunities could increase philanthropy, with alumni perceptions of the residency program warranting further investigation for their impact on donation decisions.

From Eye Movements to Personality Traits: A Machine Learning Approach in Blood Donation Advertising

Blood donation heavily depends on voluntary involvement, but the problem of motivating and retaining potential blood donors remains. Understanding the personality traits of donors can assist in this case, bridging communication gaps and increasing participation and retention. To this end, an eye-tracking experiment was designed to examine the viewing behavior of 75 participants as they viewed various blood donation-related advertisements. The purpose of these stimuli was to elicit various types of emotions (positive/negative) and message framings (altruistic/egoistic) to investigate cognitive reactions that arise from donating blood using eye-tracking parameters such as the fixation duration, fixation count, saccade duration, and saccade amplitude. The results indicated significant differences among the eye-tracking metrics, suggesting that visual engagement varies considerably in response to different types of advertisements. The fixation duration also revealed substantial differences in emotions, logo types, and emotional arousal, suggesting that the nature of stimuli can affect how viewers disperse their attention. The saccade amplitude and saccade duration were also affected by the message framings, thus indicating their relevance to eye movement behavior. Generalised linear models (GLMs) showed significant influences of personality trait effects on eye-tracking metrics, including a negative association between honesty–humility and fixation duration and a positive link between openness and both the saccade duration and fixation count. These results indicate that personality traits can significantly impact visual attention processes. The present study broadens the current research frontier by employing machine learning techniques on the collected eye-tracking data to identify personality traits that can influence donation decisions and experiences. Participants’ eye movements were analysed to categorize their dominant personality traits using hierarchical clustering, while machine learning algorithms, including Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest, and k-Nearest Neighbours (KNN), were employed to predict personality traits. Among the models, SVM and KNN exhibited high accuracy (86.67%), while Random Forest scored considerably lower (66.67%). This investigation reveals that computational models can infer personality traits from eye movements, which shows great potential for psychological profiling and human–computer interaction. This study integrates psychology research and machine learning, paving the way for further studies on personality assessment by eye tracking.

Charitable crowdfunding donation-intention estimation depending on emotional project images using fNIRS-based functional connectivity.

Charitable fundraising increasingly relies on online crowdfunding platforms. Project images of charitable crowdfunding use emotional appeals to promote helping behavior. Negative emotions are commonly used to motivate helping behavior because the image of a happy child may not motivate donors to donate as willingly. However, some research has found that happy images can be more beneficial. These contradictory results suggest that the emotional valence of project imagery and how fundraisers frame project images effectively remain debatable. Thus, we compared and analyzed brain activation differences in the prefrontal cortex governing human emotions depending on donation decisions using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, a neuroimaging device. We advance existing theory on charitable behavior by demonstrating that little correlation exists in donation intentions and brain activity between negative and positive project images, which is consistent with survey results on donation intentions by victim image. We also discovered quantitative brain hemodynamic signal variations between donors and nondonors, which can predict and detect donor mental brain functioning using functional connectivity, that is, the statistical dependence between the time series of electrophysiological activity and oxygenated hemodynamic levels in the prefrontal cortex. These findings are critical in developing future marketing strategies for online charitable crowdfunding platforms, especially project images.

Incentivizing Organ Donation Under Different Priority Rules: The Role of Information

This paper examines the incentive to register for deceased organ donation under alternative organ allocation priority rules, which may prioritize registered donors and/or patients with higher valuations for organ transplantation. Specifically, the donor priority rule grants higher priority on the organ waiting list to those who have previously registered as donors. The dual-incentive priority rules allocate organs based on donor status, followed by individual valuations within the same donor status, or vice versa. Both theoretical and experimental results suggest that the efficacy of the donor priority rule and the dual-incentive priority rules critically depends on the information environment. When organ transplantation valuations are unobservable prior to making donation decisions, the hybrid dual-incentive rules generate higher donation rates. In contrast, if valuations are observable, the dual-incentive priority rules create unbalanced incentives between high- and low-value agents, potentially undermining the efficacy of the hybrid dual-incentive rules in increasing overall donation rates. This paper was accepted by Marie Claire Villeval, behavioral economics and decision analysis. Funding: This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 72173103, 72373127, and 71988101], the Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) Academic Research Fund Tier 1 [RG57/20], and the Open Foundation of Key Laboratory of Interdisciplinary Research of Computation and Economics (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics), Ministry of Education of China. Supplemental Material: The online appendices and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.01530 .

Brain Death and the Extent of Acceptance of Donating Organs for the Brain-dead in the Arab Gulf Countries

The research aimed to examines awareness of brain death definition, diagnosis criteria, and organ donation acceptance in citizens and residents of the Gulf countries. It explores acceptance levels, personal, and cultural differences affecting donation decisions. The study used the online questionnaire by applying it to the six Arab Gulf countries in addition to Iraq during 2024. A 1176 responses were obtained as a random sample of the study population, and after analyzing the data, the research reached several results, the most important is that: the willingness to donate organs for brain-dead individuals is directly proportional with a lack of understanding brain death concepts, medical protocols, legal implications, and religious perspectives. Additionally, there is a lack of coordination with the brain-dead individual's family regarding the donation process, decision-making, and who is responsible for that, and the fear that the donor’s family will reject the idea. The research recommends spreading awareness about brain death, and organ donation benefits, the necessity of having a responsible person, a family member, during the period of brain death, who will be the link between the medical staff and the family of the deceased to organize and encourage the donation, and the necessity of adopting methodologies for decision-making and considering family mental health.

Drug procurement and coordination decision under non‐directed donation behavior

AbstractThe frequent occurrence of public emergencies seriously threatens human health. As the supplier of drugs, besides producing drugs, pharmaceutical manufacturers also actively launch drug donations. However, whether this donation will affect the procurement decisions of hospital pharmacies and help relieve the supply pressure is worthy of attention. This paper aims to analyze the procurement and donation decisions under non‐directed donation scenario. Besides, we extend the application of collaborative decisions in the pharmaceutical supply chain. Our results point out that donations made by the pharmaceutical manufacturer always benefit the hospital pharmacy and the pharmaceutical supply chain system, and only in certain circumstances can it make itself more profitable. In non‐directed donation scenario, drug donation and procurement quantities under centralized decision are always higher than that under decentralized decision. The social collaborative decision has more advantages in improving members' decisions and profits. The coordination effect of collaborative decisions is often better when there are significant fluctuations in the wholesale price. Through our analysis, it can provide a reference for pharmacies and pharmaceutical manufacturers to make appropriate procurement and donation decisions.