Risk aversion, organ utilization and changing behavior
Abstract
Improving organ acceptance and utilization rates is critical to ensure we maximize usage of donated organs as a scarce resource. Many factors underlie unnecessary discard of viable organs. Declined transplantation opportunities for candidates is associated with increased wait-list mortality. Technological advancements in organ preservation may help bridge the gap between donation and utilization, but an overlooked obstacle is the practice of risk aversion by transplant professionals when decision-making under risk. Lessons from behavioral economics, where experimental work has outlined the impact of loss or risk aversion on decision-making, have not been translated to transplantation. Many external factors can influence decision-making when accepting or utilizing organs, which are potentially amendable if external conditions are improved. However, attitudes and perceptions to risk for transplant professionals can pervade decision-making and influence behaviour. If we wish to change this behavior, then the underlying nature of decision-making under risk when accepting or utilizing organs must be studied to facilitate the design of targeted behavior change interventions to convert risk aversion to risk tolerance. To ensure optimal use of donated organs, we need more research into decision-making under risk.
Author
Citations
Altmetric:
Date
2022-04-07
Type
Article
Subject
Transplantation, Nephrology/Renal medicine
Collections
Citation
Sharif A. Risk Aversion, Organ Utilization and Changing Behavior. Transpl Int. 2022 Apr 7;35:10339. doi: 10.3389/ti.2022.10339.
Journal / Source Title
Transplant International
DOI
10.3389/ti.2022.10339
PMID
35462791
Publisher
Frontiers Media
Publisher’s URL
https://www.frontierspartnerships.org/journals/transplant-international