New Kidney Allocation System Associated With Increased Rates Of Transplants Among Black And Hispanic Patients

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Taylor A Melanson, Emory University; Laura Christine Plantinga, Emory University; Mohua Basu, Emory University; Stephen Pastan, Emory University; Stephen Mohan, Columbia University; Jason Michael Hockenberry, Emory University; David H Howard, Emory University; Rachel Elizabeth Patzer, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2017-06-01
• Publisher: Project HOPE
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2017 Project HOPE-The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2016.1625
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Health Affairs
• ISSN: 0278-2715
• Volume: 36
• Issue: 6
• Start Page: 1078
• End Page: 1085
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported in part by Health Resources and Services Administration contract 234-2005-370011C.
• Keywords: UNITED-STATES; OUTCOMES; Health Care Sciences & Services; STAGE RENAL-DISEASE; CANDIDATES; Health Policy & Services; POLICY; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; POVERTY; RACIAL DISPARITIES; SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS; Science & Technology; ACCESS; RACE
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Public Health; Health Sciences, Health Care Management; Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery

Abstract

Before the 2014 implementation of a new kidney allocation system by the United Network for Organ Sharing, white patients were more likely than black or Hispanic patients to receive a kidney transplant. To determine the effect of the new allocation system on these disparities, we examined data for 179,071 transplant waiting list events in the period June 2013-September 2016, and we calculated monthly transplantation rates (34,133 patients actually received transplants). Implementation of the new system was associated with a narrowing of the disparities in the average monthly transplantation rates by 0.29 percentage point for blacks compared to whites and by 0.24 percentage point for Hispanics compared to whites, which resulted in both disparities becoming nonsignificant after implementation of the new system.