Development and preliminary evaluation of an animation (simplifyKDPI) to improve kidney transplant candidate understanding of the Kidney Donor Profile Index

Background: Transplant candidates are reluctant to accept kidneys from high Kidney Donor Profile Index (KDPI) donors. Incomplete understanding can lead to transplant delays for older transplant candidates. Patients need access to understandable information to make more informed decisions about KDPI.

Methods: We developed a KDPI-specific animation with input from six stakeholder groups and conducted a one-group pre-post study with 60 kidney transplant candidates for feasibility and acceptability to improve participant KDPI knowledge, understanding, decisional self-efficacy, and willingness to accept a KDPI > 85% kidney. Data were compared using McNemar's test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

Results: Compared with pre-animation scores, post-animation scores were significantly higher for KDPI knowledge for the entire cohort (4.6 vs 6.1, P < .001) and across different levels of age, educational attainment, health literacy, vintage, and technology access. The frequency of positive responses increased pre-post animation for KDPI understanding (55% vs 83%, P < .001) and decisional self-efficacy (47% vs 75%, P < .001). However, willingness to accept KDPI > 85% kidneys (32% vs 36%, P = .83) increased by 2%. After viewing simplifyKDPI, >90% indicated positive ratings on ease of watching, understanding, and engaging.

Conclusion: In collaboration with stakeholders, an educational animation about KDPI was developed that was well-received and is promising to impact knowledge.