Does Sex, Race, and the Size of a Kidney Transplant Candidate’s Social Network Affect the Number of Living Donor Requests? A Multi-Center Social Network Analysis of Patients on the Kidney Transplant Waitlist

BACKGROUND: A kidney transplant candidate's social network serves as a pool of potential living donors. Sex and racial differences in network size, network strength, and living donor requests may contribute to disparities in living donor kidney transplantation. METHOD: In this multicenter cross-sectional study, we performed an egocentric network analysis via a telephone survey of 132 wait-listed candidates (53% female, 69% Black) to identify demographic and network factors associated with requesting living kidney donations. RESULTS: Female participants were made requests to more network members than male participants: incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) [1.24, 3.06], p < 0.01. Black participants tended to make more requests than whites (IRR 1.65, 95% CI [0.99, 2.73], p = 0.05). The number of requests increased with the size of the network (IRR 1.09, 95% CI [1.02, 1.16], p = 0.01); however, network size did not differ by sex or race. Network members who provided greater instrumental support to the candidates were most likely to receive a request: odds ratio 1.39, 95% CI [1.08,1.78], p = 0.01. CONCLUSIONS: Transplant candidates' networks vary in size and in the number of requests made to the members. Previously observed racial and sex disparities in living donor kidney transplantation do not appear to be related to network size or to living donation requests, but rather to the network members themselves. Future living donor interventions should focus on the network members and be tailored to their relationship with the candidate.