Understanding Donation Costs and Stem-Cell Donor Behaviour

• Applicant: Dr. Michael Haylock
• Subject Area: Economic Policy, Applied Economics ; Public Health, Healthcare Research, Social and Occupational Medicine
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 566667001

Every year, more than 8,000 people in Germany die from blood cancer. Children and young adults under 20 are particularly affected. For many patients, a hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) from an unrelated matching donor is the best treatment option. Global donor registries, such as DKMS, have helped increase donor availability, allowing around 90% of German patients to find a match. However, challenges remain, especially due to a shortage of available donors. A major issue is the high dropout rate during the donation process. Many individuals register as donors but later decide against donating—particularly at the crucial stage of confirmatory typing (CT). In 2023, the CT dropout rate at DKMS Germany was 28%, and in countries like the UK and the US, it reaches up to 56%. This threatens the efficiency of donor registries and reduces survival chances for patients. Our goal is to increase the number of actual donors by reducing perceived barriers and concerns about donation. Many registered donors lack up-to-date information about the donation process, especially regarding the fact that over 90% of donations now occur via peripheral blood stem-cell collection, a much less invasive procedure than bone marrow extraction. As a result, some donors decline when asked to proceed with a donation. In this project, we develop and test targeted informational interventions to improve donor decision-making using insights from behavioral economics. First, we conduct laboratory experiments to understand how different types of information affect willingness to donate and what psychological factors play a role. Next, we test these interventions in the field with a large sample of 500,000 DKMS donors. Finally, we scale the most effective interventions to all newly registered DKMS donors under 30 in Germany (over 200,000 people per year). By improving donor retention, our interventions aim to enhance the efficiency of stem-cell registries and ultimately save more lives. Additionally, our research contributes valuable insights to the fields of health and behavioral economics.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: USA
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Patrick Kampkötter; Dr. Susanne Seitz; Professor Dr. Daniel Wiesen
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Mario Macis, Ph.D.