The Dutch donor registry: registration rate of hospital personnel, living kidney donors, and patients.
BACKGROUND
In the Netherlands 13.3 million citizens were contacted by the Dutch donor registry to indicate whether they consented or objected to become an organ/tissue donor after death. Nearly 4.7 million individuals are now registered, which is a 35.1% response rate. We wondered whether kidney patients, living kidney donors, and health personnel would have comparable response rates.


RESULTS
A total of 239 individuals were interviewed, of whom 52% indicated to be registered. The highest registration rate was found for hospital personnel (66%) followed by living kidney donors (51%) and patients (38%). In general, more women than men (57% vs 47%) had returned their registration form.


CONCLUSIONS
In the Dutch general public the willingness to make their decision known during life to donate organs/tissue after death is rather low. Presumably motivated individuals (eg, hospital personnel and living kidney donors) scored significantly better, but even in these subgroups 34% and 49%, respectively, were nonresponders.
Zuidema
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Internal Medicine, Section Transplantation, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. w.zuidema@erasmusmc.nl
Luchtenburg
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de Klerk
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M
Weimar
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D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019520:Living Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009426:Netherlands; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012042:Registries; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement