Article Text
Abstract
Objectives To explore regional variations in donation of cadaveric solid organs and tissues across the four devolved health administrations of the UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland).
Design A secondary analysis of databases from NHS Blood & Transplant (1990–2009) and from the National Organ Procurement Service for the Republic of Ireland, Eurotransplant International Foundation and Scandiatransplant.
Results After adjusting for time, statistically significant differences were found among the four regions (p<0.001) for liver donations. The only exceptions were between England and Scotland and between Wales and Northern Ireland where the differences were not significant following a Bonferroni correction (p>0.008). England had significantly fewer heart donations than both Wales (p<0.001) and Northern Ireland (p=0.005). There were no significant differences among the four regions for lung donations. Regional variations in kidney and corneal donations were moderated by time. Northern Ireland, however, has had consistently lower corneal donation rates than the other three regions.
Conclusion Organ donation rates over the last two decades vary in the four UK regions, and this variation depends on the type of organ donated. Further exploration of underlying factors, organisational issues, practices and attitudes to organ donation in the four regions of the UK, taking into account findings from EU countries with varying approaches to presumed consent, needs to be undertaken before such legislation is introduced across the UK.
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Footnotes
Correction notice The “To cite: …” information and running footer in this article have been updated with the correct volume number (volume 1).
To cite: Donal McGlade, Gordon Rae, Carol McClenahan, et al. Regional and temporal variations in organ donation across the UK (secondary analyses of databases). BMJ Open 2011;1:e000055. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2011-000055
Funding This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None.
Contributors DM contributed to acquisition and interpretation of data, drafting and critical revision of the article and approval of the final version; CM contributed to the design of the study and the interpretation of data, critical revision of the article and approval of the final version; GR contributed to the design of the study, undertook a major part of data analysis and interpretation, contributed to drafting and critical revision of the article and approval of the final version; BP conceived the study and contributed to its design, data analysis and interpretation, drafting and critical review of the article, and approval of the final version.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement No additional data are available.