After Major Motorcycle Rallies, More Organs Available for Donation

Major motorcycle rallies in the U.S. were linked to an increased incidence of organ donation and transplant, a retrospective cross-sectional study showed, suggesting that safety measures during these rallies should be implemented.

Compared with the 4 weeks before and after rallies, there was an estimated 21% more organ donors per day during the rallies (incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.21, 95% CI 1.09-1.35, P=0.001), as well as 26% more transplant recipients per day (IRR 1.26, 95% CI 1.12-1.42, P<0.001), reported Anupam Jena, MD, PhD, of Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues.

"This amounts to approximately 1 additional donor or 6 additional transplant recipients in these regions for every 2 major motorcycle rallies," they wrote in JAMA internal Medicine.

"Because the timing of these rallies is plausibly unrelated to demand for organs and because we found no such effect for non-motor vehicle-related donor deaths, our findings are likely due to an increase in motorcycle use in areas where large rallies are held," Jena and team noted.

Over 9 days -- the mean duration of a motorcycle rally -- the net effect of motorcycle rallies resulted in 14% more organ donors and 19% more transplant recipients per day during rally dates versus non-rally dates (IRR 1.14, 95% CI 1.01-1.30, P=0.04).

"During motorcycle rally weeks in distant regions not containing motorcycle rallies, there was no increase in the number of organ donations or transplants, suggesting that our observed main effect was associated with the rallies rather than other temporal factors such as vacation travel," the authors wrote.

In an accompanying editorial, Grace Yuan Zhang, MD, of the University of California San Francisco, and Mitchell Katz, MD, of NYC Health + Hospitals in New York City, noted that "these findings are not surprising given the high mortality associated with motorcycle accidents."

"Professional and social organizations associated with high-risk sports (not just motorcycle riding but others such as base-jumping, outdoor climbing, glacier hiking, skydiving, or canyoning) should encourage participants to specify that they wish to donate their organs when they die in the future," they added. "The findings of [this study] provide a reminder to practice safety while practicing high-risk activities and to consider opting-in to become an organ donor to help save lives."

Over 100,000 people were on a wait list for a solid organ transplant as of January, Jena's group noted. Demand continues to exceed supply, with only 33,000 transplants performed in 2021. Deceased donors accounted for 84% of all transplanted organs, and traumatic injury caused by motor vehicle accidents accounted for 11% of all organ donors.

Motorcyclists without helmets have been shown to be three times more likely to become organ donors after being involved in fatal crashes compared with passenger vehicle motorists. Moreover, in states where motorcycle helmets were previously required by law, repeal of this law was associated with higher rates of crash-related deceased organ donation.

For this study, Jena and colleagues used data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients on 10,798 organ donors ages 16 and up who died after being involved in a motor vehicle crash and 35,329 organ recipients from these donors from March 2005 to September 2021.

They looked at seven rallies, including the Atlantic Beach Bikefest in South Carolina, the Bikes, Blues & BBQ in Arkansas, Daytona Bike Week in Florida, Laconia Motorcycle Week in New Hampshire, Myrtle Beach Bike Week Spring Rally in South Carolina, the Republic of Texas Biker Rally in Austin, and the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota.

During the rally dates, there were 406 organ donors and 1,400 transplant recipients compared with 2,332 organ donors and 7,714 transplant recipients during the 4 weeks before and after the rallies.

Of the donors, 70.9% were men, and mean age was 32.5, while 64% of organ recipients were men, and mean age was 49.3. Kidney, liver, heart, and lung transplants were most common.

Similar baseline and clinical characteristics of donors and recipients, including recipient waiting time and disease severity, were observed during the rally and non-rally dates. However, more donors during rallies were from racial minority groups compared with donors during non-rally dates (19% vs 14%, P=0.01).

Jena and team noted that the observational design of the study, as well as possible residual confounding, were study limitations. The study also did not assess whether the increase in organ transplants during the rallies improved transplant outcomes.

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