title: The Effect of State Policies on Organ Donation and Transplantation in the United States.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Shortages in transplantable solid organs remain a critical public health challenge in the United States. During the past 2 decades, all states have implemented policies to increase organ supply, although their effectiveness is unknown.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the effects on organ donation and transplantation rates of state policies to provide incentives for volunteer donation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using a quasi-experimental design and difference-in-differences regression analyses, we estimated the effect of policies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia on organ donors per capita and the number of transplantations from January 1, 1988, to December 31, 2010. Analyses were also stratified by type of donor (living vs deceased). Data were derived from the United Network for Organ Sharing. All data collection occurred between July 7 and September 27, 2013.
  
  
  METHODS
  Policies of interest were the presence of first-person consent laws, donor registries, dedicated revenue streams for donor recruitment activities, population education programs, paid leave for donation, and tax incentives. Information on states' passage of various policies was obtained from primary legislative and legal sources.
  
  
  METHODS
  The number of organ donors and transplantations per state, per year, during the study period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From 1988 to 2010, the number of states passing at least 1 donation-related policy increased from 7 (14%) to 50 (100%). First-person consent laws, donor registries, public education, paid leave, and tax incentives had no robust, significant association with either donation rates or number of transplants. The establishment of revenue policies, in which individuals contribute to a protected state fund for donation promotion activities, was associated with a 5.3% increase in the absolute number of transplants (95% CI, 0.57%-10.1%; P = .03). These associations were driven by a 4.9% increase in organ donations (95% CI, 0.97%-8.7%; P = .01) and an 8.0% increase in transplants (95% CI, 3.1%-12.9%; P = .001) from deceased donors as opposed to changes among living donors or transplants from living donors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nearly all state-level policies to encourage organ donation have had no observable effect on the rate of organ donation and transplantation in the United States. The one exception was the establishment of revenue policies to promote organ donation, which may have led to small increases in organ donations and transplantations from deceased donors. New policy designs are needed to increase donation rates and curtail the widening gap between organ supply and demand.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts2Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chatterjee
authors.affiliation: Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts3Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston4Center for Global Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
authors.forename: Atheendar S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Venkataramani
authors.affiliation: Division of Renal Diseases, Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri.
authors.forename: Anitha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vijayan
authors.affiliation: Section of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri.
authors.forename: Jason R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Wellen
authors.affiliation: Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, State University of New York, Albany8Department of Public Administration and Policy, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany-State University of New York.
authors.forename: Erika G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Martin
mesh_terms: D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D016377:Organ Transplantation / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018579:Patient Selection; D012042:Registries; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013219:State Government; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States