Review of the Literature
While the National (and now international) Bone Marrow Donor Registry has been a growing and very important resource in America over the past couple decades, there is still far too little awareness and participation in order to save every patient, or at least find each person needing a transplant a perfect match. Studies have shown that not only are Caucasians more likely to find perfect matches than any other ethnic identification, but those other ethnic groups (blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Native Americans, etc.) are more likely to have donors back out or not respond at all once called upon. The Registry could be much more efficient if each ethnicity were better represented and if the attrition rates were lower. Non-profit organizations spend money to test each cheek swab and blood sample. If they are spending money on donors who will just back out and leave patients with false hope, these organizations are wasting their money.
In fact Laver et al. found that while Caucasians with “transplantable disorders” have around an 80% chance of finding a perfect match in the Registry, African-Americans have less than a 30% chance of finding such a match. Johansen et al. isolated the specific obstacles that prevent many African Americans from joining the registry as well as what often causes them to back out if called to be a donor. They explain how the fears and ignorance can be easily countered with proper education about the procedure and explanations of how everything is free of charge and there is no penalty for missing work. Most interesting, Switzer et al. reviewed what keeps people from registering as well as common reasons for attrition. In their findings they could find no strong tie to a particular demographic. It is interesting that the reasons for reneging on the promise of donation is the same across races and yet it disproportionately presents itself in minority groups, particularly African-Americans. Finally, they suggested that avoiding using social pressures and a particular patient as a heart tug at registration drives because these conditions are most likely to have donors leave the database. However these are two of the most common ways to generate volunteers. People can’t help but be swept in by the melodrama of a patient fallen victim to the hero of cancer. It would be challenging to generate many volunteers without such a tug at their heartstrings.
There is so much literature describing the lack of diversity in the Registry as well as analyzing the issue of drop out rates and how to counteract these results. However these reasons are the same for every race. I seek to find a what causes non-Caucasian groups to feel the effects of these characteristics more, specifically in the young college population of each group. I plan to survey college students of all backgrounds and see how much they know about the becoming a donor as well as any misconceptions they may have that may prevent them from registering. I am also throwing a “swab drive” on campus to recruit more donors. Here I will observe for any patterns that can be drawn from ethnicity to ethnicity. I will attempt to spread awareness and education about the Registry as well as try and highlight what may be different triggers in different ethnicities.
In fact Laver et al. found that while Caucasians with “transplantable disorders” have around an 80% chance of finding a perfect match in the Registry, African-Americans have less than a 30% chance of finding such a match. Johansen et al. isolated the specific obstacles that prevent many African Americans from joining the registry as well as what often causes them to back out if called to be a donor. They explain how the fears and ignorance can be easily countered with proper education about the procedure and explanations of how everything is free of charge and there is no penalty for missing work. Most interesting, Switzer et al. reviewed what keeps people from registering as well as common reasons for attrition. In their findings they could find no strong tie to a particular demographic. It is interesting that the reasons for reneging on the promise of donation is the same across races and yet it disproportionately presents itself in minority groups, particularly African-Americans. Finally, they suggested that avoiding using social pressures and a particular patient as a heart tug at registration drives because these conditions are most likely to have donors leave the database. However these are two of the most common ways to generate volunteers. People can’t help but be swept in by the melodrama of a patient fallen victim to the hero of cancer. It would be challenging to generate many volunteers without such a tug at their heartstrings.
There is so much literature describing the lack of diversity in the Registry as well as analyzing the issue of drop out rates and how to counteract these results. However these reasons are the same for every race. I seek to find a what causes non-Caucasian groups to feel the effects of these characteristics more, specifically in the young college population of each group. I plan to survey college students of all backgrounds and see how much they know about the becoming a donor as well as any misconceptions they may have that may prevent them from registering. I am also throwing a “swab drive” on campus to recruit more donors. Here I will observe for any patterns that can be drawn from ethnicity to ethnicity. I will attempt to spread awareness and education about the Registry as well as try and highlight what may be different triggers in different ethnicities.