August is National Minority Donor Awareness Month (NDAM).
Started in 1996, the month-long celebration encourages creating a positive, supportive culture around organ donation to help increase organ donor registrations and save lives.
The annual theme of “One Voice, One Vision” represents the ways we can all pledge our voices to a vision for a brighter future in which more people receive the gift of life.
Key Statistics for Minority Donor Awareness Month:
- 60% of transplant candidates are non-white.
- Heart disease, high blood pressure, chronic illness, and diabetes rates are higher in non-white communities.
- Non-white Americans are less likely to receive a transplant.
- Structural racism can impact not just a patient’s likelihood to get a transplant but also their post-transplant survival and outcomes.
- The organ donation rate is lower for non-white communities.
- While an ethnicity match is not required for a transplant, it increases the odds of success.
