Donors and Recipients of Living Kidney Donation: A Qualitative Metasummary of Their Experiences

Table 1

Characteristics of studies included in the metasummary.

Authors	Year	Reference	Research design/methodology	Sample	Study purpose/research question as reported by authors	Country
Yi	2003	[29]	Grounded theory using semistructured interviews	14 living donors	Explore what people experienced when deciding to donate a kidney and explore associated issues and concerned when they made their decisions	Korea
Sanner	2003	[30]	Follow-up interviews 3, 6, 12, and 24 months posttransplantation	12 heart recipients, 12 living-kidney recipients and 11 necro-kidney recipients	To examine how organ recipients in late modernity conceived the special features that distinguish the transplantation from other treatments, namely, that vital, “living”‌ organ are transferred from one human being (deceased or alive) to another	Sweden
Franklin et al.	2003	[31]	Retrospective semistructured interviews between 1 and 5 years after transplantation (phenomenological approach)	50 donors and partners and recipients and partners (study A)	Not reported	United Kingdom
Haljamäe	2003	[32]	Qualitative interviews (phenomenographic approach)	10 living donors	Assess and describe the remaining experiences of donors more than 3 years after early recipient graft loss or death of the recipient	Sweden
Heck et al.	2004	[33]	Case studies by catamnestic interviews with donors and recipients	31 donor-recipient dyad	Examine the psychosocial effects of living donor kidney transplantation for donors and recipients under successful as well as complicated circumstances	Germany
Walsh	2004	[34]	Semi-structured interview (interpretative phenomenological analysis)	8 living related donors	Explore psychological experience, motivation, and meaning associated with decision-making processes	Ireland
Andersen et al.	2005	[35]	Individual in depth interviews (empirical phenomenological method)	12 living donors	Explore physical and psychosocial issues related to the experiences of living kidney donors 1 wk after open donor nephrectomy	Norway
Sanner	2005	[36]	Interviews the day before nephrectomy and 3 weeks afterwards	39 living donors	Explore the donation process of a heterogeneous group of genetically and nongenetically related living kidney donors	Sweden
Waterman et al.	2006	[37]	Focus group methodology	26 recipients, 4 donors and 3 family members	Understand the psychological barriers and educational needs of potential recipients regarding living donation	United States
Crombie and Franklin	2006	[38]	Ethnographic interviews	50 donors, recipients and nondonors	Explore the family experience of live donation from psychological, social and cultural perspectives	United Kingdom
Andersen et al.	2007	[39]	Follow-up interviews (phenomenological approach)	12 living donors	Explore experiences regarding physical and psychosocial health during the first year after donor surgery	Norway
Brown et al.	2008	[40]	Qualitative interviews (phenomenological approach)	12 living donors	Explore living kidney donors' perceived experiences with the health care system from the period prior to being tested as a potential donor, through to postdonation discharge and followup	Canada
Gill and Lowes	2008	[41]	Interviews (phenomenological approach)	11 donor-recipient pairs	To explore the experience of donors and recipients throughout the live transplantation process and the relevance of the theory of “gift exchange” as a framework for exploring and understand donors and recipients experiences of live transplantation	England
Brown et al.	2008	[42]	Semi-structured interviews (phenomenological approach)	12 living donors	Gain a deeper understanding of the decision-making processes and psychosocial issues for living kidney donors	Canada
Williams et al.	2009	[43]	Grounded theory using interviews	18 living donors	Explore and describe the experiences of persons who had donated a kidney within Western Australia	Australia