Donor card registration system in Japan: an obstacle to procuring kidneys for transplantation.
Donor cards are a simple and effective way to give a consent to organ donation in cases of unexpected death. In Japan the prevalence of donor cards is low (0.4%) compared to the United States (24.6%), although about 50% of Japanese people are reported to be willing to donate their organs after death, a figure equivalent to the United States. We hypothesized that the donor card registration system can explain the low prevalence, and an introduction of a free delivery system will increase the prevalence. From April 1992 to April 1993, 402 high school students and 3391 workers in the Tokyo metropolitan area were requested to answer questionnaires; all the questionnaires were returned. Few respondents (15.5%) knew the way in which to be registered as a donor card holder. If donor cards were delivered freely and registration to carry a donor card was not required, 48.8% replied that they would be willing to carry donor cards. The most commonly cited reason for not carrying a donor card was 'I had no opportunity to get a donor card'. This study indicates that the introduction of free delivery of donor cards will increase the prevalence dramatically if a sufficient number of opportunities are offered. We recommend that a free delivery system should be introduced in order to increase the prevalence and secure the will of the deceased rather than the will of the family.
Hasegawa
T
T
Teikyo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Maeda
Y
Y
Yamakawa
K
K
Tsuchida
T
T
Oshima
S
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D012042:Registries; D012933:Social Identification; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000145:classification*; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000458:organization & administration*