An empirical investigation on the impact of attitudes towards organ donation in India

Background: Organ shortage is a global issue and it is imperative to take steps to bridge this gap. In the Indian context, despite its demographic dividend, the rate of organ donation has been abysmally low. This emphasizes a need to demystify the antecedents of organ donation intention among the Indian population. Methods: Using a cross-sectional research design and adopting a post-positivism research philosophy, this study identified 259 respondents by adopting a purposive sampling approach and data on knowledge of organ donation was collected using a structured, pretested questionnaire. Results: Awareness of organ donation law in India is low on specific issues and respondents from the health science & medicine discipline scored better on knowledge about organ donation. The findings show that most participants had heard about organ donation and had a favourable attitude toward it. The primary sources of information on organ donation were television and newspapers, and healthcare service providers. A complementary partial median is established (β = .217, t = 5.889, p < .001) which implies that willingness to discuss with family significantly mediates the association between attitude towards organ & tissue donation and willingness to sign the donor card. Conclusion: This study revealed that there is a general awareness of organ and tissue donation among the Indian population, but they lack clarity on certain specific issues. Mass media has to be effectively used to build awareness campaigns revolving around enhancing knowledge on a specific issue and building acceptance of the concept of organ and tissue donation.

Challenges and Motivators to Organ Donation: A Qualitative Exploratory Study in Gujarat, India

Purpose

Despite the global efforts to improve organ donation, there is a demand-supply gap for organs in India. The only solution to meet this disparity is to improve deceased donor transplants in the country through victims of road accidents. The government has instituted several initiatives to achieve this goal. However, challenges and barriers continue to affect the organ donation process. The present study aims to document the motivating factors and obstacles in the decision of families to donate organs in Ahmedabad, Gujarat and their suggestions to improve the processes involved in organ donation.

Patients and Methods

A qualitative exploratory study (in-depth interview) of ten relatives of deceased organ donors was conducted from Oct 2021 to Feb 2022. Interviews were audio recorded, and detailed notes were taken during the interview. Thematic analysis was done using ATLAS.ti version 8 software.

Results

The significant motivators identified were family members' belief or conviction that it would help save the lives of others; a sense of moral obligation to do so as bodies of brain-dead persons can contribute to this noble goal, no use of the body after death, an extension of life, and being a role model for others. The challenges were mistrusting the organ donation process, fear of being responsible for any mishappening, and feeling of shock. The suggestions to improve organ donation included awareness creation, simplifying the legal process for accidental deaths, providing benefits to the donor family, and a system for identifying potential donors and their counselling.

Conclusion

The present study reflects the need for a more comprehensive awareness campaign to generate awareness and remove the misconception about organ donation in India. The findings of the study can be helpful for policymakers to amend the current organ donation process in India and improve the disequilibrium of demand and supply of deceased donations in India.

Speaking of Values: Value-Expressive Communication and Exercise Intentions

This study introduces the concept of value-expressive communication and examines its relationship with behavioral intent. Value-expressive communication is conceptualized as the verbal output of a value-expressive attitude. Value-expressive communication about exercise is examined in relationship to strength of religious faith, exercise attitudes, communication frequency, and intentions to exercise among a sample of self-identified Christians. The data indicate a significant interaction between value-expressive communication and communication frequency explains significant variance in exercise intentions. Interact to and exercise attitudes is significantly associated with intentions to exercise. Suggestions for using value-expressive communication in health communication research and practice are discussed.

Relationship Between High Organ Donation Rates and COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage

Background

Besides attaining the goal of self-protection, the rollout of vaccination programs also encourages altruistic practices. Therefore, the progress in vaccination against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in each country may be related to the prevalence of cooperative and altruistic practices in health care. I hypothesized that in countries where organ donation is popular, individuals would exhibit a greater tendency to become vaccinated.

Methods

I examined the correlation between the level of progress of COVID-19 vaccination and the status of organ donation just before the pandemic in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Publicly available statistical information on the progress of immunization and organ donation was used. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to examine common drivers of immunization and organ donation.

Results

In OECD countries, progress in vaccination was found to be significantly correlated with the status of organ donation in each country. This relationship was stable after the summer (September 1: Pearson's r = 0.442, October 1: 0.457, November 1: 0.366). The results of the univariate and multivariate analyses showed that high trust in medical professionals was significantly correlated with both the “progress of vaccinations” and “organ donations.”

Conclusions

Progress in COVID-19 vaccination and organ donation status for transplantation have similar trends, and both may involve people's trust in medical personnel and public health systems. Similar to the efforts to obtain organ donors, governments around the world need to take further steps to ensure that vaccination programs are supported by people's trust and sense of solidarity.

[Reasons and Influencing Factors for the Willingness to Document Preferences Regarding Organ Donation: Results of an Online Survey]

OBJECTIVE

Different options to regulate decisions about organ transplantation were subjected to discussions prior to parliamentary decision on 16.01.2020. The goal of this study was the description of citizens' attitudes towards organ donation and investigation of predictors of (documentation of) willingness to donate.

METHODS

Cross sectional online survey in Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt between 25.11.2019 till 16.01.2020. Descriptive, statistical analysis. We report absolute and relative frequencies. We conducted logistic regression analysis for the influence of age, income and gender on knowledge, willingness to donate and possession of an organ donor card.

RESULTS

Of 20 020 invited citizens, 676 (3.4%) participated in the online survey; 54.9% were in favour of an opt-out regulation, 49.4% supported an opt-in regulation, 63.3% of respondents were willing or rather willing to donate an organ and 43.2% possessed an organ donor card. Willingness to donate and possession of an organ donor card decreased with increasing age. A Higher educational level was associated with having an organ donor card. Gender, income, education and knowledge about organ donation were not associated with the willingness to donate an organ. Of those who were willing to donate but who had not a donor card, 45.7% had communicated their will to relatives. Reasons indicated for lack of documentation included practical reasons as also fears related to medical care in case of critical health state.

DISCUSSION

None of the discussed legislative regulations on organ donation has been supported by a clear majority of respondents. Distinct population-based surveys can serve as starting point for developing targeted initiatives to increase the documentation of citizens' will regarding organ donation following brain death.

Socio-Cultural Factors Contributing to Being an Organ Donor in Iranian Employees

AIMS

The purpose of this study was to use a culturally modified Organ Donation Model (ODM) to explore the significant factors and ways in which these factors could influence signing the donor card.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted among 600 employees from 57 offices in Hamadan, Iran, in 2018. Participants were selected randomly and surveyed on being a donor and their perceptions regarding signing the donor card. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to determine the inter-relationship between the studied variables.

RESULTS

Participants' mean age was 39.5 (SD = 7.0). 20% of participants had a signed donor card. Descriptive norms (β = 0.53, p < 0.001), non-cognitive beliefs (β=-0.33, p < 0.001), anticipated regret (β = 0.28, p < 0.001) and subjective norms (β=-0.17, p < 0.01) had significant direct effects on signing the donor card.

CONCLUSION

This study provides socio-culturally informed evidence on individuals' signing donor card. These factors could provide a guide to policymakers to develop the community-based interventions.

Comercialización social de la donación de órganos en Colombia: un estudio exploratorio

Resumen Este estudio tiene como objetivo determinar las actitudes, creencias y aspectos culturales que motivan a los familiares de las personas fallecidas a donar sus órganos, a través de los cuales el marketing social puede desarrollar acciones que promuevan cambios de comportamiento. Se realizó un estudio de investigación descriptivo exploratorio a través del método de recopilación de información cualitativa con entrevistas en profundidad utilizando un cuestionario semiestructurado, procesado por el software NVivo 11. Descubrimos que las razones por las cuales los miembros de la familia donaron órganos fueron principalmente manifestaciones durante la vida del donante, el deseo de las familias de poder ayudar a otras personas (altruismo) y creencias religiosas.

Knowledge and Attitudes on Organ Donation From the Perspective of Liver Transplant Patients

PURPOSE

This study was performed to investigate the knowledge and attitudes about organ donation from the perspective of liver transplant patients.

DESIGN AND METHODS

The study was conducted at the organ transplantation clinics. The data were collected by the researchers from 129 participants using in-person interviews.

FINDINGS

In this study, 83% of patients received the organ from live donors, 36% received liver transplants in the previous 1 year, more than 70% agreed to donate their organs, and 80% thought awareness should be raised in society about organ donation.

CONCLUSION

It was found that the participants in the sample needed information on the issue, although the sample consisted of individuals who had experienced organ donation. It is important that nurses and nurse managers understand the level of knowledge and the attitudes of organ donation patients who have undergone liver transplantation. Worldwide, organ donation is not at the desired level. This study aims to enhance in nurses and nurse managers the foresight regarding and awareness about behaviors of transplantation patients.

Corneal donation for research versus for transplantation: A-year prospective study of acceptance rates in a French University Hospital

Fresh corneal donation is essential for basic and preclinical research, but more unknown to public and the medical teams than donation for transplantation: it may raise concerns. We prospectively compared the acceptance rates and the characteristics of targeted corneal donation for research versus donation for transplantation during one year. The Agence de la Biomédecine authorized us to procure fresh corneas targeted for research, only from the donors with medical contraindications for transplantation, in order not to increase grafts shortage. Three nurses from the hospital coordination team of Saint-Etienne University Hospital, obtained consent for research and transplantation in parallel, screening all intra-hospital deaths cases, following standard protocol to check no refusal from families, despite the French opt-out system. They contacted 127 families for research and 244 for transplantation, in 71% of cases by telephone. Consent was obtained in 62% of cases for research and 54% for transplantation (P = 0.135). The main contraindication for transplantation was the cognitive disorders (66%) followed by the blood cancers (8%). This new specific activity, providing new source of fresh corneas for research immediately usable without any eyebank storage steps, didn't reduce the number of corneas procured for transplantation versus previous years (P = 0.998). Donors in the research group were 10 years older (P<0.001) without difference regarding endothelial cell quality (P = 0.071), allowing maximal clinical relevance for protocols using these fresh human scientific corneas provided by targeted donation.

Systematic Literature Review of Interventions for Promoting Postmortem Organ Donation From Social Marketing Perspective

Introduction:

This systematic review examines the factors that make some interventions promoting postmortem organ donation more successful and more likely to change behaviors than others. We analyzed the effectiveness of different types of interventions for promoting postmortem organ donation against the criteria identified by previous research in other health-related areas as the most important for designing effective behavior change programs. We observed a correlation between the use of social marketing benchmarks and the reported success of intervention goals.

Methods:

We conducted a systematic review of all articles describing interventions promoting postmortem organ donation published in scientific journals between January 2008 and November 2018. We analyzed these articles against the 7 social marketing benchmark criteria using a coding questioner.

Findings:

The analysis revealed a correlation between the use of social marketing benchmark criteria in an intervention’s design and the success of the intervention. Interventions that employed 6 or 7 criteria reported successful achievement of all intervention objectives. We observed a decrease in success rates when fewer than 6 social marketing benchmark criteria were included in the intervention design.

Discussion:

The findings suggest that a social marketing approach may prove useful to efforts to promote postmortem organ donation. More social marketing benchmark criteria should be included in the design and implementation of interventions promoting postmortem organ donation.

Reluctance and Willingness for Organ Donation After Death Among the Slovene General Population

Introduction

The paper presents the findings of the first large-scale survey on post-mortem organ donation among the general Slovenian population. It focuses on the reported donation willingness, the barriers to joining the register of organ donors and the position towards consent to donate organs of deceased relatives.

Methods

A face-to-face survey was conducted on a probability sample of 1,076 Slovenian residents between October and December 2017. The performed analyses included estimations of means and proportions for target variables, an evaluation of between-group differences and a partial proportional odds model to study the relations between organ donation willingness and socio-demographic characteristics.

Results

The mean reported willingness to donate one’s own organs after death was 3.77 on a 5-point scale, with less than a third of respondents claiming to be certainly willing. Only 6% of those at least tentatively willing to donate organs were certain to join the register of organ donors in the future. The most frequently reported barriers to registration were unfamiliarity with the procedure and a lack of considering it beforehand. The reported willingness to donate organs of a deceased relative strongly depended on the knowledge of the relative’s wishes, yet 80% of the respondents did not discuss their wishes with any family members.

Conclusions

The findings confirm the gap between the reported donation willingness and joining the register of donors. Future post-mortem organ donation strategies need to consider socio-demographic and attitudinal factors of donation willingness and help stimulate the communication about organ donation wishes between family members.

Attitudes of Iranian students about organ donation: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Organ donation is a life-saving process for patients suffering from an advanced organ failure. A disparity between donated organs and required organs for transplantation is one of the major problems in Iran. Since personal attitudes about organ donation is a main factor influencing willingness to donate organ, the present study sought to provide a deeper understanding of the attitudes of university students in Iran regarding organ donation.

METHODS

This qualitative study was conducted in 2016. Semi-structured interviews were held for collecting data from eighty five students from various universities in Hamadan city, Iran. Using a purposive sampling method, the students were selected based on the maximum variation. The content analysis method was used for data analysis by the research team and criteria for the study's rigor was considered.

RESULTS

Overall, the students had positive attitudes toward organ donation by brain-dead patients. Nevertheless, not of them stated that they would become an organ donor. During the data analysis, 376 primary codes, 13 categories, and 6 themes were developed. Themes were "cognitive readiness", "mediators of decision making", "beliefs and motivations", "interactions with the health system", "dependency", and "integrity of the body". Also, thirteen sub-themes were developed.

CONCLUSION

Many factors influence the students' attitudes toward organ donation. Identification and explanation of these factors can help healthcare managers and policymakers for planning and improving the organ donation culture in the society.