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Young adults enrolled in hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) donation registries, including the Be The Match registry in the United States, often opt out of the registry when a potential recipient is identified. This results in a limited supply from the most desirable allogeneic source of HSCs used in transplantation to treat serious health conditions. The differences in demographic, psychosocial, registry-related, and donation-related characteristics between those who continue to donation and those who opt out may elucidate the modifiable risk factors for attrition, but these characteristics have not been extensively studied in young donors up to age 30 years. Our goal was to study demographic, psychosocial, registry-related, and donation-related characteristics in a group of young HSC donor registry members who had recently been contacted about a potential recipient, to determine the key characteristics that differ between those who continued toward donation and those who opted out and to examine the extent of these differences. We conducted a cross-sectional survey in a random sample of young (age 18 to 30 years) current and former registry members, stratified by race/ethnicity and sex. Demographic, psychosocial (eg, life goals, HSC allocation mistrust), registry-related (eg context and motive for joining the registry), and donation-related (eg, ambivalence, religious objections to donation, knowledge about donation) characteristics were assessed. Chi-square and 2-sample t tests were used to examine differences between those who continued (CT-C group) and those who opted out (CT-NI group). Hierarchical logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted covariate effects on the odds of opting out. A total of 935 participants were surveyed. Donation-related knowledge was higher in the CT-C group than in the CT-NI group. HSC allocation mistrust, religious objections, and concerns about donation were higher in the CT-NI group. After adjusting for covariates in a logistic regression model, we found that having more intrinsic life goals, having more ambivalence, and talking with registry staff only once/twice were significantly associated with opting out of the registry. Ambivalence had the strongest association with opting out. In contrast, remembering joining the registry, believing that parents would support donation, and having medical concerns were significantly associated with continuing toward donation. This effect of medical concerns on donation was discovered only after adjusting for the related but distinct ambivalence variable, with the remaining effect of medical concerns relating to engagement with the donation process and information-seeking. The model had strong discriminative ability (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = .92) and classification accuracy (86.6%). Our data indicate that among young adult members of a national HSC donor registry, ambivalence and limited contact with registry staff were more strongly associated with opting out of donation. Medical concerns were associated with continuing toward donation. Further studies are needed to confirm a causal link between medical concerns and continuing to donation among young donors. Our study suggests that these concerns might not be directly related to attrition, whereas other factors (eg, ambivalence, low donation-related knowledge) are associated with attrition and thus should be targeted for attrition reduction strategies.

Attrition of young adult registry members is a significant issue impacting hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) donation registries, including the Be The Match registry in the US. The resulting limited supply of allogeneic HSCs, used to treat serious health conditions, has a stronger impact on racial/ethnic minority groups in the US. Compared with young white adults, young adults identifying with these minority groups are more likely to drop out of the donor registry when called to donate. However, the underlying psychosocial factors that differ between white and nonwhite registrants have not been fully investigated. The central goal of this study was to examine demographic, registry-related, and donation-related characteristics in a young, newly registered group of potential donors and to determine whether these characteristics differed by, or were distributed differently among, racial/ethnic groups. We conducted a cross-sectional survey in a random sample of young (age 18 to 30 years) newly registered members, stratified by racial/ethnic group and sex. Demographic, registry-related (eg, context and motive for joining the registry), and donation-related (eg, ambivalence, religious objections to donation, knowledge about donation) characteristics were assessed. The chi-square test and analysis of variance were used to examine differences among racial/ethnic groups. Discriminant function analysis was used to assess whether patterns of the 3 classes of characteristics were associated with membership in particular racial/ethnic groups. A total of 524 participants were surveyed. Joining online was most common among white individuals, whereas joining at college was most common among black and Hispanic individuals. Ambivalence toward donation was higher among Asian/Pacific Islanders compared with white or multiracial/multiethnic individuals. Discriminant function analysis revealed 4 psychosocial/attitudinal functions predicting membership in certain racial/ethnic groups. The function accounting for the most variance in responses included mistrust of HSC allocation, religious objections to donation, low parental support, and low knowledge level. This function discriminated significantly between the white and nonwhite groups. Another function also identified ambivalence as a discriminating factor, which was most strongly associated with Asian/Pacific Islanders. Among young adult members of an HSC donor registry, such factors as ambivalence, family concerns about donation, mistrust of HSC allocation, religious objections, and less knowledge about donation were more strongly associated with membership in the nonwhite groups compared with the white group. These factors are known to be associated with a higher risk of opting out after having been preliminarily matched with a patient. The finding that these characteristics are associated with racial/ethnic minority group membership provides targets for recruitment strategies aimed at improving retention of young registry members.