Study: Children of College-Educated Parents Favored for Transplant

Nephrologists are significantly more likely to recommend a kidney transplant for children of college-educated parents than for children of parents who did not finish high school, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers.

In a study involving more than 300 physicians, the researchers sought to assess the effects of compliance, parental education and race on nephrologists' recommendations for transplantation in children with kidney failure.

They found that despite identical clinical and demographic characteristics, children of college-educated parents were almost 50 percent more likely to be recommended for transplant than chldren of parents with less education.

They also found that patient compliance with their treatment was an important consideration, but that it had a different effect on transplant recommendations for while children than for black children.

"The adjusted odds ratio of a white compliant patient being referred for transplantation were twice that of a black patient," the researchers reported in the American Journal of Transplantation.

Other Sources: American Journal of Transplantation