title: Characteristics and Evaluation of Geographically Distant vs Geographically Nearby Living Kidney Donors.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Living donor kidney transplant (LDKT) can be impeded by multiple barriers. One possible barrier to LDKT is a large physical distance between the living donor's home residence and the procuring transplant center.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a retrospective, single-center study of living kidney donors in the United States who were geographically distant (residing ≥150 miles) from our transplant center. Each distant donor was matched to 4 geographically nearby donors (<150 miles from our center) as controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From 2007 to 2010, of 429 live kidney donors, 55 (12.8%) were geographically distant. Black donors composed a higher proportion of geographically distant vs nearby donors (34.6% vs 15.5%), whereas Hispanic and Asian donors composed a lower proportion (P = .001). Distant vs nearby donors had similar median times from donor referral to actual donation (165 vs 161 days, P = .81). The geographically distant donors lived a median of 703 miles (25% to 75% range, 244 to 1072) from our center and 21.2 miles (25% to 75% range, 9.8 to 49.7) from the nearest kidney transplant center. The proportion of geographically distant donors who had their physician evaluation (21.6%), psychosocial evaluation (21.6%), or computed tomography angiogram (29.4%) performed close to home, rather than at our center, was low.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Many geographically distant donors live close to transplant centers other than the procuring transplant center, but few of these donors perform parts of their donor evaluation at these closer centers. Black donors comprise a large proportion of geographically distant donors. The evaluation of geographically distant donors, especially among minorities, warrants further study.
authors: Renal and Pancreas Transplant Division, Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, New Jersey, USA; Rutgers School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA. Electronic address: fweng@barnabashealth.org.
authors: F L
authors: FL
authors: Weng
authors: Ronald O. Perelman Department of Emergency Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA; Department of Population Health, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA.
authors: D C
authors: DC
authors: Lee
authors: Renal and Pancreas Transplant Division, Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, New Jersey, USA.
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Dhillon
authors: Renal and Pancreas Transplant Division, Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, New Jersey, USA.
authors: K N
authors: KN
authors: Tibaldi
authors: Renal and Pancreas Transplant Division, Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, New Jersey, USA.
authors: L A
authors: LA
authors: Davis
authors: Renal and Pancreas Transplant Division, Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, New Jersey, USA.
authors: A M
authors: AM
authors: Patel
authors: Renal and Pancreas Transplant Division, Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, New Jersey, USA.
authors: R J
authors: RJ
authors: Goldberg
authors: Renal and Pancreas Transplant Division, Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, New Jersey, USA.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Morgievich
authors: Renal and Pancreas Transplant Division, Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, New Jersey, USA.
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Mulgaonkar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D044383:Black People; D033001:Directed Tissue Donation; D005260:Female; D062306:Geography, Medical; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D019520:Living Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008913:Minority Groups; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States