Attrition of potential bone marrow donors at two key decision points leading to donation.
BACKGROUND
The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) has had remarkable success at recruiting potential bone marrow donors and recently has become increasingly focused on the retention of registered volunteers. This study extends the authors' work examining factors associated with attrition from the registry. Its goal was to determine which characteristics from six psychosocial domains were associated with attrition at two key stages leading to donation.


METHODS
Questionnaires were mailed to potential donors after they were contacted as a potential match and had decided whether or not to continue toward donation. Our final sample included 1,727 volunteers who decided to continue with typing at the DR stage and 195 volunteers who decided to continue at the confirmatory typing (CT) stage as well as 179 and 169 individuals, respectively, who declined further participation in the registry at DR and CT stages.


RESULTS
Bivariate analyses indicated that multiple factors in all six domains (demographics, volunteer-related, general psychosocial, recruitment-related, donation-related, and contact with center staff) were associated with discontinued registry participation. Logistic regression indicated that unique associations were concentrated in volunteer-related, donation-related, and contact with center domains.


CONCLUSIONS
Findings suggested that intrinsic commitment to donation, more realistic expectations, fewer medical concerns, and greater contact with the donor center were all associated with lower attrition. Possible interventions to reduce attrition are discussed.
Switzer
Galen E
GE
Department of Medicine, Center for Research on Health Care, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. switzerge@upmc.edu
Dew
Mary Amanda
MA
Goycoolea
Jean M
JM
Myaskovsky
Larissa
L
Abress
Linda
L
Confer
Dennis L
DL
D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation / Q000523:psychology*; D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010352:Patient Dropouts; D012042:Registries; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000523:psychology*; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement