title: Source and Message Framing Considerations for Recruiting Mature Adults as Organ Donors Through Direct Mail Campaigns.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mature adults represent an important audience segment for organ donation practitioners. Despite their potential impact as organ donors, compared to other age demographics, their registration rates are much lower.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective of the current campaign was to determine the most effective source and message strategy to promote organ and tissue donation among mature adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 2 (states: Illinois and Iowa) by 2 (sources: government agency and organ procurement organization [OPO]) by 3 (taglines: Any age is the right age to share the gift of life, Don't rule yourself out, and Don't rule yourself out: Any age is the right age to share the gift of life) between-subjects design was used to test the effectiveness of direct mailings promoting organ donation to mature adults.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Across both Illinois and Iowa, the results revealed that greater organ donation registration rates emerged following exposure to direct mail authored by a state official such as the Illinois Secretary of State or the Iowa Department of Public Health compared to local OPOs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, the findings speak to the effectiveness of direct mail marketing campaign's ability to register potential organ donors. Moreover, the results reveal that it is more important who sends the message as opposed to what the message states.
authors.affiliation: 1 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Brian L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Quick
authors.affiliation: 1 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Reynolds-Tylus
authors.affiliation: 2 The College at Brockport, State University of New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Ashley E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Fico
authors.affiliation: 3 University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas Hugh
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Feeley
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D011177:Postal Service; D012042:Registries; D014019:Tissue Donors; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement
keywords: direct mail campaign; mature adults; message framing; message source; organ donation registration