Objetives:

To describe the care needs of the kidney donor candidate; the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics; and to analyse the results from a gender perspective.

Material and Method:

Cross-sectional descriptive observational study. Clinical and socio-demographic data, number and type of visits and clinical tests performed during 2020 were collected.

Results:

Sixty kidney donor candidates (n=37 women; 61.67%) with a mean age of 51.98±14.50 years and a median of 2.5 [RIQ (0.69-5.29)] months of study were included. 16 (26.67%) were eligible for donation, corresponding to 14.16% of the Renal Transplant (RT) activity of the reference centre. 757 visits were required (20.60% of the activity) of which 341 (45.05%) were visits with a nurse. 423 tests (19.60% of the activity) were required during the study. A mean of 1.87±1.35 cardiovascular risk factors was identified in the sample analysed, being 1.56±0.81 in those who were donors. More women (n=12; 75%) than men (n=4; 25%) were ultimately renal donors.

Conclusions:

The study of kidney donor candidates is complex and involves twice as much activity as that of kidney transplant recipient candidates. The process ends in donation in 27% of the candidates studied. The nurse concentrates 45% of the visits required. Strategies need to be explored to optimise the study process. There are gender differences in the predisposition to be studied voluntarily as a kidney donor candidate.