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Electronic messaging and communication with living kidney donors
Author(s) -
Ruck Jessica M.,
Zhou Sheng,
Thomas Alvin G.,
Cramm Shan L.,
Massie Allan B.,
Montgomery John R.,
Berger Jonathan C.,
Henderson Macey L.,
Segev Dorry L.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
clinical transplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.918
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1399-0012
pISSN - 0902-0063
DOI - 10.1111/ctr.13184
Subject(s) - medicine , text messaging , telephone call , exploratory analysis , electronic communication , confidence interval , family medicine , internet privacy , telecommunications , data science , computer science
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 LKD s 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 LKD s recruited, 3% requested telephone call, 52% e‐mail, and 45% text messaging. Telephone response rate was 0%; these LKD s 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 2.07 5.81 16.36 , P = .001). Text messaging had higher response rates than e‐mail ( IRR nonresponse 0.11 0.28 0.71 , P = .007). Rates of nonresponse were similar by sex ( IRR 0.68, P = .4) and age ( IRR 1.00, P > .9). In summary, LKD s 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.