The following is a summary of “Dialysis Patients’ Social Networks and Living Donation Offers,” published in the June 2023 issue of Kidney Medicine by Gillespie et al. 

Most surviving kidney donors are members of the social network of hemodialysis patients. The network members are divided into core members and peripheral members. Core members have strong connections to the patient and other network members, while peripheral members have limited links. Researchers determine how many network members of hemodialysis patients offered to become kidney donors, whether these offers came from the network’s core or peripheral members, and whose offers the patients accepted—a cross-sectional interviewer-administered survey of hemodialysis patient social networks. Hemodialysis patients are prevalent in two facilities. 

Network size, constraint, and a peripheral network member’s donation are predictors. The outcome is the number of living donor proposals accepted. For each participant, egocentric network analyses were conducted. Poisson regression models evaluated associations between network measurements and several offers. The relationships between network factors and accepting a donation offer were determined by logistic regression models. The average age of the 106 individuals was 60 years. Around 45% were female, and 75% identified themselves as Black. About 52% of participants received at least one living donor offer (range: 1–6), with 42% of those offers coming from peripheral members.

 Participants with more extensive networks received more job offers (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 1.26; 95% CI, 1.12-1.42; P = 0.001), including those with more peripheral members (constraint, IRR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.96-0.98; P<0.001). Those who received a peripheral member offer were 3.6 times more likely to accept an offer (OR, 3.56; 95% CI, 1.15-10.8; P = 0.02) than those who did not (OR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.15-10.8; P = 0.02). Exceptions include A sample of hemodialysis patients only. Most participants received at least one living donor offer, typically from the network periphery. Future living donor interventions should target both network core and network periphery members.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259005952300050X