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.
Teikyo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
T
T
Hasegawa
Y
Y
Maeda
K
K
Yamakawa
T
T
Tsuchida
S
S
Oshima
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*