Attitudes towards organ donation in Syria: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background The perception of organ donation and brain death among Syrian population has not been previously explored. The goal of this study is to evaluate the attitude and knowledge of organ donation among Syrians and the willingness of this population to donate their organs. Methods We conducted a survey-based cross-sectional study in four hospitals in Aleppo, Syria in November 2019. Patient demographic, awareness of brain death; and attitude toward organ donation were collected and analyzed. Results A total of 350 individuals were invited to participate in the survey among whom 303 (197 females, 106 males) agreed to participate in the study (87% response rate). The majority of our participants (n = 249, 82%) heard about organ donation with television (n = 166, 55%), social media (n = 77, 25%), and the internet (n = 77, 25%) being the most common sources of information. When assessing knowledge about brain death, only 40% (n = 116) answered 3 or more questions (out of 5) correctly. Fifty-eight percent (n = 176) of respondents agreed with the idea of organ donation and 183 (62%) would like to donate their organs one day. The leading motivation to organ donation was the desire to help (n = 234, 77%), while the most common reason to refuse donation was the refusal to disfigure a dead body by removing an organ (n = 125, 41%). Religious reasons were cited as motivation for organ donation by 43% of participants (n = 130), and a reason for refusing to donate organs by 24% (n = 71). Most respondents (n = 261, 88%) were unaware of the laws and legislations related to organ donation in Syria. When asked if religion and law were encouraging organ donation, 76% of respondents (n = 226) would donate their organs. Although more positive attitude was found in those with better brain death knowledge (score ≥ 3), this did not translate into more willingness to donate organs in this group of participants. Conclusions The promotion of organ donations from deceased donors is a necessity given the rising shortage of organs. The information provided by this study could help policy makers build future strategies to promote deceased organ donation programs and overcome current obstacles preventing such initiatives from achieving their goals.

Knowledge, attitudes and willingness to organ donation among the general public: a cross-sectional survey in China

“…In this study, the general public’s rate of willingness to organ donation was 47.45%. For the domestic public, this rate was similar to the rate in Nanning City (47.92%) [ 18 ], higher than the rate in Ji’nan city (46%) [ 27 ], Zhejiang Province (18.8%) [ 17 ] and Northwest China (29.5%) [ 28 ]; Compared with foreign data, this rate was higher than the rate in Japan (41.9%) [ 29 ], and lower than the rates in Syria (62%) [ 30 ] and in the Middle East (49.8) [ 31 ].…”

Public Understandings of the Definition and Determination of Death: A Scoping Review

“… 20 Four recently published empirical studies found that the greater the knowledge of brain death and organ donation, the more families shared a positive impression or attitude toward donation. 31 - 33 , 35 …”

“…The majority of studies located focus on brain death and organ donation and, in particular, the public's lack of knowledge surrounding brain death determination when making donation decisions. [31][32][33][34][35] Studies have demonstrated that some people feel that if they agree to organ donation for their loved one, those patients may be diagnosed as dead too soon. 17,52 One study showed that although 80.1% of family members would allow for organ donation after the death of a consenting relative, this rate dropped by 20% when the word death was substituted with brain death, revealing a lack of either understanding or acceptance of the concept and their legal equivalence.…”

“…20 Four recently published empirical studies found that the greater the knowledge of brain death and organ donation, the more families shared a positive impression or attitude toward donation. [31][32][33]35 A Latvian study found that study participants had widely different preferences concerning death determination criteria between higher brain, whole brain, or circulatory criteria. Interestingly, participants preferred less restrictive criteria for both their own death determination and organ transplantation than for their relatives (P < 0.001).…”

Solid organ transplantation medicine in Arab countries: A Narrative Review Focused on Ethical Aspects

“…[31,32] Attitudes toward organ donation Information about the attitudes toward organ donation in the Arab countries is the result of multiple surveys of patients, relatives, professionals, and public members. [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] According to an extensive multicenter survey in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Egypt by the Renal Transplant Study Group, end-stage renal disease patients tended to take the initiative in seeking living unrelated renal transplantation, despite physician discouragement, and the significant financial burden. [33] A survey of 702 Tunisian physicians, nurses, and technicians by Tebourski et al, 59% were favorable toward organ donation.…”