Kidney patients' intention to receive a deceased donor transplant: Development of stage of change, decisional balance and self-efficacy measures

In order to sustain life, patients whose kidneys fail must receive dialysis or obtain a transplant. This study reports on the development and validation of measures of Stage of Change, Decisional Balance and Self-efficacy based on the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) to assess patients' readiness to receive a deceased donor transplant. We surveyed 293 transplant-eligible kidney patients about their deceased donation readiness. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses for all measures demonstrated factor structures similar to previous application of the TTM to other health behaviors, excellent model fit and good internal and external validity. These brief, reliable instruments with good psychometric properties can guide the development of improved, individually-tailored transplant education for patients.