Living Donor Kidney Transplantation: A Focus on the Socioecological Model to Determine Why Hispanics/Latinos Have a Disproportionate Amount of Kidney Transplants When Compared to Other Ethnic Groups

Authors

Melissa Wenceslao
Amy D. Waterman, PhD, University of California-Los Angeles
Crystal Kynard-Amerson, MPH, University of California-Los Angeles
AuBre Parnicky, MSW, University of California-Los Angeles

Keywords

Kidney; Transplantation; Socioecological; Hispanic; Knowledge

Disciplines

Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education | Community College Leadership | Higher Education | Immune System Diseases | Medicine and Health Sciences | Public Health | Translational Medical Research | Virus Diseases

Abstract

Health disparities, especially kidney transplantation disparities, are prevalent in the Hispanic/Latino community. In order to decrease existing kidney transplantation disparities in the Hispanic/Latino community, culturally tailored education surrounding living donor kidney transplants needs to be improved.

The socioecological model depicts factors that affect a patient’s decision making when deciding on obtaining a living kidney donor transplant. These factors often act as barriers, which are categorized as patient-level factors, provider factors, and system factors. Patient-level factors include family and social networks, provider factors include physician and/or health care provider relationships, and system level factors include health care organization efficiency. Developing patient education tools (i.e. videos, pamphlets, brochures, factsheets) that address these potential barriers would alleviate some of the patient concerns and perceived hindrances to kidney transplantation.

The methodology requires patient interaction in the form of interviews and data retrieval from online sysmtems. Although the results of this study are not concluded it is expected that Hispanics/Latinos have a disproportionate amount of kidney transplants when compared to other ethnic groups due to factors such as familism and lack of living donor kidney transplantation knowledge.

Recommended Citation

Wenceslao, Melissa; Waterman, PhD, Amy D.; Kynard-Amerson, MPH, Crystal; and Parnicky, MSW, AuBre (2016) "Living Donor Kidney Transplantation: A Focus on the Socioecological Model to Determine Why Hispanics/Latinos Have a Disproportionate Amount of Kidney Transplants When Compared to Other Ethnic Groups," Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice: Vol. 9: Iss. 5, Article 23.
Available at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/jhdrp/vol9/iss5/23