Increasing Donor Designation Rates in Teenagers: Effectiveness of a Driver's Education Intervention

Beth Israel Lahey Health

Status: Completed

Conditions: Organ Donor Registration; Organ Donation Education

Treatments: Behavioral: Organ Donation Education: Blended Messaging; Behavioral: Organ Donation Education: Informational Messaging; Behavioral: Organ Donation Education: Testimonial Messaging

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03013816

2015P000063

Details and patient eligibility

About

Four aims were pursued: (1) Evaluate the effectiveness of video messaging on adolescent donor designations in comparison to a regionally-matched historical comparison group of adolescents; (2) Compare the differential effectiveness of three commonly-used donation messaging strategies (informational, testimonial, and blended) on donor designations; (3) Examine the impact of donation messaging on changes in secondary outcomes (donation engagement, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, likelihood of donor designation, discussion with a parent) before and after video intervention; and (4) Assess the commitment of parents to follow their adolescent's donation wishes in the event of death. Our central hypotheses were that integrating donation video messaging into driver education classes would generate a higher proportion of donor designations compared to a historical comparison group and that blended video messaging (informational + testimonials) would yield a higher proportion of donor designations and more change in secondary outcomes.

Enrollment: 611 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Criteria for Classrooms:

Classroom eligibility criteria included: (a) driver education conducted in English, and (b) instructor agreement not to provide or discuss donation information beyond the study video.

Criteria for Adolescent Participants:

Inclusion Criteria:

• Enrolled in driving school class
• English speaking
• Adolescent assent
• Parental permission to participate

Exclusion Criteria:

• Prior participation in a driver's education class in which organ donation education was provided
• Parent permission form not signed

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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611 participants in 3 patient groups

Testimonial Messaging

Experimental group

Description:

This video features four personal testimonials with strong emotional appeal, including an adolescent kidney transplant recipient, a pediatric liver transplant recipient, a young adult kidney transplant candidate, and an adolescent whose twin brother was a deceased organ donor. There are minimal facts about transplantation or donation.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Organ Donation Education: Testimonial Messaging

Informational Messaging

Experimental group

Description:

This video mirrors common educational campaigns and included segments of HRSA's animated video, Organ Donation and Transplantation: How Does it Work? The IM video presents facts about donation, including the current supply-demand problem in transplantation, common reasons for/against donor designation, donation myths, and the importance of communicating with parents about donation. Information about how to register as a donor is also included. The video contains no personal testimonials.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Organ Donation Education: Informational Messaging

Blended Messaging

Experimental group

Description:

This video features four personal testimonials with strong emotional appeal, including an adolescent kidney transplant recipient, a pediatric liver transplant recipient, a young adult kidney transplant candidate, and an adolescent whose twin brother was a deceased organ donor. There are minimal facts about transplantation or donation.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Organ Donation Education: Blended Messaging