The Price of Being a Living Kidney Donor

Filed in archive Cases , Studies on July 31, 2006

According to a study done partly by the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada), living kidney donors often suffer financially in their effort to help someone else needing a kidney transplant.

Even if expenses for medical evaluation, surgery and hospital care are in general covered by public or private insurance, donors often shoulder the bill for other costs associated with the donation process.

In a study by a research team from University of Alberta, University of Western Ontario and McMaster University, 35 relevant studies from 12 countries about costs incurred by people who donated kidneys between 1964 and 2003 were reviewed.

This was the first review to assemble and analyze quantitative data on the direct and indirect costs incurred by living kidney donors which revealed that while no one study had a complete tally of expenses, many types of costs attributable to kidney donation were incurred:

1) In the U.S., average of costs per donor is $837, ranging from zero to $28,900.
2) 9 to 99% of the donors shouldered their travel and/or accommodation expenses and were higher in countries with a larger land mass like Canada.
3) 14 to 30% of donors shouldered the costs of lost income: average loss of $3,386 in one U.K. study and $682 in one Netherlands study.
4) 3% of the donors (studies from Australia and Germany) shouldered the costs of losing jobs either by being fired or resigning due to the physical limitations suffered after the transplantation surgery.
5) In a U.S. study, over the long term donors are 37% more likely to have growth in their household income versus the non-donors.

According to Dr. Scott Klarenbach, a co-author on the study (nephrologist and health economist at the University of Alberta in Canada), because of various shortcomings of existing studies, it is very likely that both the frequency and magnitude of the above costs are systematically underestimated. Well in fact, even the relatively small costs may still be a significant burden to those who donate, and could pose as a disincentive to potential donors.

These days, living organ donation is increasingly being counted on in order to improve the health of those suffering from kidney failure. In this regard, it is critically important that potential donors are informed and understand fully the associated economic risks in this altruistic endeavor. Information such as the results of this study/review should help assist in guiding donor reimbursement policies, which are already being considered in several countries.

The results of the review appear in the July issue of Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation.

Source: EurekAlert