Social and Behavioral Interventions to Increase Organ Donation

among people over 50 years old 2)            family discussion and knowledge about donation among adolescents, and actual registration among adolescents, where possible 3)            consent of parents[1] for donation of a deceased minor child’s organs 4)            knowledge about the opportunities for and risks and benefits of living organ donation Accordingly, this program will support sound applied research studies to test the effectiveness of strategies that target any of the four program objectives listed above including their potential to have wide impact on the availability of organs for transplant in the U.S.  While the program focuses on organ donation, it is hoped that successful strategies may increase eye and tissue donation as well. For purposes of this program, model interventions are defined as those that are: (1) effective in producing a verifiable and demonstrable impact on any of the program objectives identified above; (2) replicable; (3) transferable; and (4) feasible in practice. All projects must have rigorous methodology and quantitative evaluation components capable of ascertaining the effectiveness of the intervention(s). While quantitative research would most strongly demonstrate effectiveness, qualitative components may add useful information. The budget and timeline should reflect a strong research methodology. Applications may propose pilot or extension projects.  A pilot project tests an intervention that has not before been tested for its utility and effectiveness in the donation field. An extension project builds on results of a pilot project by adjusting or adding some new dimension to the original intervention in attempts to strengthen the intervention. Projects also may test the effectiveness of a purposefully and logically coordinated and synchronized set of multiple strategies for increasing donation in specified populations. Projects that propose the use of multiple strategies are required to measure the independent effects of each strategy as well as the interactive effect of the various strategies. Applications that propose new ideas and novel approaches that are cost-effective in achieving DoT program objectives and demonstrate utility for the donation and transplantation community are encouraged. Applicants also are encouraged to consider implementing strategies that have been successful in other public health fields and evaluating their effectiveness for use in the donation field. Because of the disproportionately high need for kidney transplants in minority populations and the greater likelihood of finding a donor of similar blood type within the same ethnic or racial group, applications focusing on minority populations are encouraged. Applicants have considerable flexibility in proposing interventions, including: the focus and nature of the intervention, intervention sites(s), geographic location(s), target group(s), etc. insofar as they are consistent with those specified for this FOA. Sound conceptual models of behavioral change must inform the intervention and various components of the methodology. Increased attention is given to project impact. Study designs will be reviewed for their potential to be replicated at the end of the grant period in similar or other parts of the country or with similar or other target populations. The aim is to foster more immediate and widespread use of successful interventions and ultimately increase availability of organs for transplant. Inclusion of more than one target population, oversampling specific population(s), or implementation in more than one geographic location are methods that may be employed to strengthen study findings and replication potential.  [1] In this document reference to ‘parents’ is to be understood to include parents, guardians, or other persons authorized under applicable laws to consent to such donation.