Factors associated with attitude and hypothetical behaviour regarding brain death and organ transplantation: Comparison between medical and other university students

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the factors, including knowledge, that determine an individual's attitudes and behaviours regarding brain death and organ transplantation using questionnaires among medical and other university students. A total of 522 students (388 medical and 134 other) answered a questionnaire. The survey included the individual's knowledge about brain death, attitudes towards brain death and organ transplantation, and hypothetical behaviours assuming their willingness to donate their own or their family's organs. Medical students were more likely to have knowledge about brain death and to accept brain death and organ transplantation compared with other students, while there was no difference in their willingness to donate their own or their family's organs. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the effects of various factors on the attitudes and behaviours. In both medical and other students, confidence in brain-death diagnosis by doctors was independently associated with their willingness to donate their own organs after the adjustment for other factors, including knowledge (odds ratio [OR], 1.85; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.15 to 2.97 and OR, 4.97; 95% CI, 1.01 to 24.39, respectively). An increase in knowledge may cause positive attitudes towards brain death and organ transplant. Meanwhile, reducing uncertainty about the brain-death diagnostic process might have a beneficial effect on the willingness to donate organs.