profession
Short videos can help drive up organ-donor registration
Posted April 16, 2012
Asking people who are getting their driver’s licenses to watch a short video about organ donation on an iPod can increase the rate at which they agree to register as organ donors, said an April 3 Annals of Internal Medicine study.
The randomized trial involving nearly 1,000 people using the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles found that those who were given an iPod to watch the five-minute video were 16% likelier to sign up as organ donors, with 84% doing so. The video discussed common reasons why people fear organ-donor registration, such as the unfounded worry that it will result in inadequate medical care. The iPod intervention had an even bigger impact among black participants, with 76% of those seeing the video registering to donate — a rate 40% higher than that of blacks who did not see the video (link).
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/04/16/prbf0416.htm.