Whites experienced organ transplants at a significantly greater rate than African Americans and other ethnic groups in the decade from 1988 to 1997, according to a report in the January issue of the Journal of the National Medical Association.

Although transplantation rates for all Americans were similar in 1988, researcher Hong Xiao of Florida A&M University reported that rates for whites increased dramatically through 1994 while the number of transplants for African Americans, Hispanics and Asians grew at a significantly lower rate.

By 1997, heart transplantation rates for Caucasians were more than five times greater than the rates for African Americans, Hispanics and Asians, Xiao reported. Kidney transplant rates for whites after a decade were nearly nine times higher than rates for the other groups.

Xiao analyzed nationwide hospital discharge information from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project's Nationwide Inpatient Sample in his study, "A Trend Analysis of Organ Transplantation Among Racial or Ethnic Groups."