American Journal of Internal Medicine

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Survey of Public Attitude, Awareness and Beliefs of Organ Donation in Western Region of Saudi Arabia

Received: 21 December 2015    Accepted: 29 December 2015    Published: 08 January 2016
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Abstract

Although organ transplantation is often the only preferable treatment for end-stage organ disease, there are not many organ donors in Saudi Arabia. This cross-sectional study analyzed data from 461 subjects recruited from the western region of Saudi Arabia to explore the current public awareness, attitudes and beliefs towards organ donation. The data were collected through a self-administered validated structured questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed and compared by subjects' age and sex using appropriate statistical tests with the level of statistical significance was defined as P ≤ 0.05. The mean age of the studied 461subjects was 28.3 ± 10.9 years, of them 74.0% were females and 26.0% were males. The study findings revealed that 73.5% of the studied subjects were willing to donate their organs with no significant differences between the studied males and females, although only 4.6% of them reported to have a donation card. Religion, money, and age of the recipient appeared to have no role in their willing of organ donation. The majority of the participants knew well the organ which can be donated; although 64.5% of them have no knowledge about the regulations and legislation of organ donation. The participants have also believed that governmental incentives in the form of monetary and health treatment for donor family and awards would be effective in promoting organ donation in the country. A considerable proportion of respondents in this study were willing to donate their organs, in which religion and financial reasons were not factors. The observed low level of knowledge about regulations and legislations necessitates more efforts to spread awareness about such important issues. Future representative national studies are needed before any generalization can be assumed.

DOI 10.11648/j.ajim.20150306.18
Published in American Journal of Internal Medicine (Volume 3, Issue 6, November 2015)
Page(s) 264-271
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Attitude, Awareness, Organ Donation, Saudi Arabia, Transplantation

References
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Author Information
  • College of Medicine, Taibah University, Madinah, Saudi Arabia

  • College of Medicine, Taibah University, Madinah, Saudi Arabia

  • College of Medicine, Taibah University, Madinah, Saudi Arabia

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  • APA Style

    Abdulrahman Soubhanneyaz, Ahmed Kaki, Muatasim Noorelahi. (2016). Survey of Public Attitude, Awareness and Beliefs of Organ Donation in Western Region of Saudi Arabia. American Journal of Internal Medicine, 3(6), 264-271. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajim.20150306.18

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    ACS Style

    Abdulrahman Soubhanneyaz; Ahmed Kaki; Muatasim Noorelahi. Survey of Public Attitude, Awareness and Beliefs of Organ Donation in Western Region of Saudi Arabia. Am. J. Intern. Med. 2016, 3(6), 264-271. doi: 10.11648/j.ajim.20150306.18

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    AMA Style

    Abdulrahman Soubhanneyaz, Ahmed Kaki, Muatasim Noorelahi. Survey of Public Attitude, Awareness and Beliefs of Organ Donation in Western Region of Saudi Arabia. Am J Intern Med. 2016;3(6):264-271. doi: 10.11648/j.ajim.20150306.18

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajim.20150306.18,
      author = {Abdulrahman Soubhanneyaz and Ahmed Kaki and Muatasim Noorelahi},
      title = {Survey of Public Attitude, Awareness and Beliefs of Organ Donation in Western Region of Saudi Arabia},
      journal = {American Journal of Internal Medicine},
      volume = {3},
      number = {6},
      pages = {264-271},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajim.20150306.18},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajim.20150306.18},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajim.20150306.18},
      abstract = {Although organ transplantation is often the only preferable treatment for end-stage organ disease, there are not many organ donors in Saudi Arabia. This cross-sectional study analyzed data from 461 subjects recruited from the western region of Saudi Arabia to explore the current public awareness, attitudes and beliefs towards organ donation. The data were collected through a self-administered validated structured questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed and compared by subjects' age and sex using appropriate statistical tests with the level of statistical significance was defined as P ≤ 0.05. The mean age of the studied 461subjects was 28.3 ± 10.9 years, of them 74.0% were females and 26.0% were males. The study findings revealed that 73.5% of the studied subjects were willing to donate their organs with no significant differences between the studied males and females, although only 4.6% of them reported to have a donation card. Religion, money, and age of the recipient appeared to have no role in their willing of organ donation. The majority of the participants knew well the organ which can be donated; although 64.5% of them have no knowledge about the regulations and legislation of organ donation. The participants have also believed that governmental incentives in the form of monetary and health treatment for donor family and awards would be effective in promoting organ donation in the country. A considerable proportion of respondents in this study were willing to donate their organs, in which religion and financial reasons were not factors. The observed low level of knowledge about regulations and legislations necessitates more efforts to spread awareness about such important issues. Future representative national studies are needed before any generalization can be assumed.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Survey of Public Attitude, Awareness and Beliefs of Organ Donation in Western Region of Saudi Arabia
    AU  - Abdulrahman Soubhanneyaz
    AU  - Ahmed Kaki
    AU  - Muatasim Noorelahi
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    JF  - American Journal of Internal Medicine
    JO  - American Journal of Internal Medicine
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    EP  - 271
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
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    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajim.20150306.18
    AB  - Although organ transplantation is often the only preferable treatment for end-stage organ disease, there are not many organ donors in Saudi Arabia. This cross-sectional study analyzed data from 461 subjects recruited from the western region of Saudi Arabia to explore the current public awareness, attitudes and beliefs towards organ donation. The data were collected through a self-administered validated structured questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed and compared by subjects' age and sex using appropriate statistical tests with the level of statistical significance was defined as P ≤ 0.05. The mean age of the studied 461subjects was 28.3 ± 10.9 years, of them 74.0% were females and 26.0% were males. The study findings revealed that 73.5% of the studied subjects were willing to donate their organs with no significant differences between the studied males and females, although only 4.6% of them reported to have a donation card. Religion, money, and age of the recipient appeared to have no role in their willing of organ donation. The majority of the participants knew well the organ which can be donated; although 64.5% of them have no knowledge about the regulations and legislation of organ donation. The participants have also believed that governmental incentives in the form of monetary and health treatment for donor family and awards would be effective in promoting organ donation in the country. A considerable proportion of respondents in this study were willing to donate their organs, in which religion and financial reasons were not factors. The observed low level of knowledge about regulations and legislations necessitates more efforts to spread awareness about such important issues. Future representative national studies are needed before any generalization can be assumed.
    VL  - 3
    IS  - 6
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