More Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be on the kidney transplant waitlist

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-07-01 16:00

Australia; VIC; SA

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians on dialysis appear to be just as likely to benefit from a kidney transplant as non-Indigenous Australians, according to researchers who say we need to tackle inequality in who is likely to be put on the waitlist. The researchers say Indigenous people are less likely to be put on the waitlist for a kidney regardless of their health, possibly due to a perception that they are less likely to benefit from a transplant. To test this, the team looked at the outcomes for 450 Indigenous people waitlisted for kidney transplantation from 2006-2020, 323 of whom received a kidney. A year after a transplant, the researchers say those who received a kidney had a better chance of survival, and that benefit was similar to the benefit non-Indigenous people get from a transplant. The team say this means we should be trying to get more Indigenous people on the waitlist and improving access to the process.