Passive-positive organ donor registration behavior: A mixed method assessment of the IIFF Model

Abstract

When it comes to organ donation, the majority of American non-donors are passive-positives – they support organ donation but have yet to register as donors. A quasi-experimental, four-city, pretest/posttest study was conducted to assess the utility of the IIFF Model as a means of increasing registration among these individuals. Focus groups were used as the intervention context. In support of the model's utility, 46.6% of focus group participants signed donor cards at the end of the intervention. Extrapolated to the general population, such a finding could result in millions of new registrants. Retrospective analyses of reasons for non-registration provided before the start of the focus groups reveal that passive-positives placing culpability for non-registration on lack of knowledge or opportunity register signed-up at a rate of 63.6%. Passive-positives claiming to have put off registering because of their discomfort with thoughts of death or fear that organ donors are allowed to die so their organs can be harvested registered at a rate of 5.8%.

Keywords:

• the IIFF Model
• organ donor
• organ donation
• mixed method
• focus groups
• passive-positive
• donor registration

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the Human Resources Service Administration, Division of Transplantation, to Donor Network or Arizona (HRSA/DoT # 1 D71SP04141-01, Sara Pace Jones, PI). The contents of this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of HRSA/DoT. The authors acknowledge the work of the Stacy Underwood (Donor Network of Arizona) for her dedication and coordination. The authors also acknowledge the contribution of the staff of Donor Network of Arizona, Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donation, Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency, and Life Center Northwest, to the current project.

Notes

1. This item was added following initial Phoenix focus groups; thus, responses to this item were not collected for participants in the Phoenix groups.

2. First person consent occurs on a state-by-state basis. All focus groups took place in states with first-person consent legislation.

3. Participants also were informed that they could remove their name from the registry at any time and provided with instructions for doing so.