Knowledge and attitude toward organ donation of medicine students of a Northeastern Mexico Public University

Abstract

© 2017, Academia Nacional de Medicina. All rights reserved. The issue of organ donation is scarcely addressed during undergraduate medical studies. Objective: To evaluate the knowledge and attitude towards organ donation of medicine students of a Northwestern Mexico public university. Materials and Methods: A prolective, descriptive, observational, and cross-sectional study. A 34 items cross-sectional survey evaluating knowledge and attitude towards organ donation in 3056 medicine students during 2013-2015. Descriptive statistics were used as absolute frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation, as well as the Chi-square test. A p < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: 74% of students would donate their own organs, mainly due to reciprocity (41%). 26% of students would not donate, 48% of them because of fear that their organs could be taken before death. 86% would donate organs from a relative. 64% have spoken about organ donation and transplantation with their family and 67% with friends. 50% said they had received no information about it. 68% understand the concept of brain death. Conclusion: Students received little information about organ donation during college. Despite that, most of them showed a positive attitude and are willing to donate.