Objective. To evaluate organ donation (OD) policy, appropriate comparisons between different OD programs are required. The objective of this research was to investigate alternative methods of measuring national rates of OD using publicly available data and examine the implications of using each method as a measure of performance. / Method. We used 7 measures to calculate deceased OD rates, based on 7 different denominators. Data were collected from OD organizations and the World Health Organization. OD rates for each measure were calculated for 10 countries for the years 2001--2004. Relative rates were calculated using Spain as the standard. / Results. We found variations in relative rates across the proposed measures. Regardless of the measure used Spain excelled. / Conclusion. If the purpose of the OD rate is to identify the top performer internationally, it may not matter which measure is used providing this is done with an understanding of its limitations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.112636 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Hornby, Karen. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002731811, proquestno: AAIMR51282, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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