Motivations to Transplant Registry Participation

Rutgers The State University of New Jersey

Status: Completed

Conditions: Healthy

Treatments: Behavioral: Rational Appeal; Behavioral: Emotional Appeal

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05595382

Pro2022000536

Details and patient eligibility

About

The current study seeks to understand factors that influence college students' likelihood of participating the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)/Be the Match for bone marrow and stem cell donations. The secondary aim is to compare emotional and rational approaches to encouraging participation in the registry and how these approaches may impact intentions to participate in the NMDP.

Full description

This study is a randomized controlled trial that will randomize participants to receive either an emotional appeal about a child with cancer who needs a bone marrow transplant or a rational appeal using data on the racial/ethnic disparities within the transplant registry.

Participants will be recruited through the Psychology Subject Pool, which will then link students to the study measures in an online survey. Participants will be asked their age to confirm eligibility to participate (students must be between 18-35), and eligible students will be presented with the consent form through the online survey system. Participants will then be asked to complete measures of demographic information, personality/psychological characteristics, and transplant-related knowledge, intentions, and attitudes. All participants will then be given background information on bone marrow transplants.

Randomization: Students will be randomized by sex in the online survey system to the emotional presentation condition or the rational presentation condition. The emotional condition will tell the story of a fictional pediatric patient with cancer who needs a transplant. The rational condition will describe the facts about the need for diversity in the registry.

After being presented with the rational or emotional appeal, participants will again be asked about their intentions to register, their motivations for registering, and their mood.

Enrollment: 397 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 35 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Rutgers Camden Students enrolled in Psych 101 and Method and Theory
• Between the ages of 18-35

Exclusion criteria

• Students under 18 years of age or over 36 or older will be excluded.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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397 participants in 2 patient groups

Emotional Group

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will be randomly assigned to receive an emotional or rational appeal, stratified by sex.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Emotional Appeal

Rational Group

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will be randomly assigned to receive an emotional or rational appeal, stratified by sex.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Rational Appeal