Public Awareness, Perception and Attitude towards Organ Donation and Transplantation: Cross Sectional Study among Ha’il City Community, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Organ donation is the process when a person donates an organ of his own to be removed and transplanted to another person, legally, either by consent while the donor is alive or dead with the assent of the next of kin. Donation may be for research or, more commonly, healthy transplantable organs and tissues may be donated to be transplanted into another person. All major religions accept organ donation. According to Saudi Centre for Organ Transplantation (SCOT), one organ donor can save eight lives and enhance the lives of up 50 people. Aim: The present study built the interest to assess the awareness, perception and attitude towards Organ donation and transplantation in Hail community. Also, to identify the reasons and determinants for refusal of organ donation. Thus, aiming to improve population’s thoughts by spreading a questionnaire on a randomly selected samples and letting them think and search more about it. Materials: The present study was a cross sectional study, done between October 2021 to February 2022. An online questionnaire was designed and distributed via various social media apps, by the help of 3 data collectors. A total of 406 participants completed the study questionnaire The Study population was Hail community, of Saudi Arabia. The participants were males and females above 18 years old. and with different nationalities. The response rate was 100%. Methods: SPSS for Windows v22.0 IBM Inc..SPSS for windows Rel 15.0 2006 Chicago Inc. Results: A total of 181out of 406 (44.6%) participants had good awareness. The overall attitude was very good 80.14%., while the overall perception was 70%.regarding organ donation and transplantation. Good awareness was detected among 60% of participants who had their information regarding organ donation from physicians. Organizing specialist conferences for organ donation will help increasing the willingness of organ donation, as many people with fatal conditions are in desperate need of organ donation these days. Conclusion: In conclusion the overall level of awareness regarding organ donation in Hail, KSA is slightly poor (44.6% had good awareness).