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Study examines provider awareness of national racial disparities in wait-listing patients for kidney transplantation
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Health care providers’ awareness of national racial disparities in wait-listing patients for kidney transplantation was low, according to a study that will be published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. The study examined dialysis facilities with low rates of wait-listing patients for transplantation.
“[We] found that among a sample of dialysis facility providers, few (<20%) were aware of the national racial disparity in access to the kidney transplant waiting list, and that awareness was even lower (5%) among those facilities that had racial disparity in wait-listing within their own center,” Rachel E. Patzer, PhD, MPH, FAST, associate professor in the division of transplantation in department of surgery at Emory University School of Medicine and co-author of the study, told Healio Nephrology.
According to the researchers, this is the first study to examine awareness of racial disparities in kidney transplant among U.S. health care providers at dialysis facilities. They noted the study is also the first to examine this awareness among providers of various roles.
The researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis of a 2016 survey of low waitlisting dialysis facilities across all 18 end-stage-renal-disease networks in the United States, merged with 2014 United States Renal Data System and 2014 United States Census data. The survey defined awareness of national racial disparities in wait-listing patients as responding “yes” to a question of whether nationally, African-American patients have lower rates of being put on waitlists, on average, than white patients.
Of the 655 providers surveyed, 19% said they were aware of the national racial disparity in wait-listing patients: 50% of medical directors; 11% of nurse managers; and 16% of other providers. Nurse managers and white providers were more likely to be unaware of a national racial disparity in wait-listing patients; facilities in the South and facilities with a low percentage of black people were more likely to be unaware, according to the release.
“The take-home message is that we need to do more outreach, education and training for these staff who have routine contact with patients so that they can be the front line in helping to address some of these important disparities,” Patzer said.- by Jake Scott
Reference:
www.newswise.com/articles/view/692335/?sc=dwhr&xy=10007438
Disclosure: Patzer reports she is a minority shareholder in Fresenius Dialysis, College Park Georgia. The other authors of the study reported no relevant financial disclosures.
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