Internet-based intervention to promote organ donor registry participation and family notification.
BACKGROUND
Little is known regarding the potential of Internet-based educational interventions to increase organ donor registry participation and family notification of donation wishes. We studied the effects of an Internet-based multimedia intervention (www.journey.transweb.org) on donor registry participation and family notification.


METHODS
Visitors to a specially designed web site were studied between December 14, 2000, and March 31, 2002. Demographic characteristics were requested, and a pretest was administered to one half of the participants (selected randomly) before web site content exposure. All visitors were offered a posttest. Eight knowledge questions (true/false), three attitude questions (7-point scale), and three behaviors (yes/no) were assessed.


RESULTS
A total of 10,884 visitors provided demographic data. Correct answers to knowledge questions increased from 85.1% to 87.0% overall (pretest vs. posttest; P<0.001) and from 80.6% to 82.0% for teenagers (P<0.001). Willingness to donate increased (scores of 6.34 vs. 6.39; P<0.001), as did willingness to join a donor registry (scores of 5.53 vs. 5.67; P<0.001). Willingness measures were less positive among teenagers but increased significantly after exposure to the intervention. Almost 10% of visitors directly linked to an online registry and 2,489 (23%) used the web site facilities to communicate donation wishes. Increases in knowledge were not associated with changes in attitudes, but an increase in pro-donation attitude was a significant predictor of donor registry participation (P<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Increases in donation attitudes among visitors to an organ donation web site resulted in positive behaviors, such as enrollment in a donor registry and family notification. Future efforts should focus on using Internet-based interventions to improve attitudes toward donation and to facilitate pro-donation behaviors.
Merion
Robert M
RM
Department of Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0331, USA. merionb@umich.edu.
Vinokur
Amiram D
AD
Couper
Mick P
MP
Jones
Eleanor G
EG
Dong
Yihui
Y
Wimsatt
Matt
M
Warren
Jim
J
Katz
Stuart
S
Leichtman
Alan B
AB
Beyersdorf
Thomas
T
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D035622:Parental Notification; D012042:Registries; D014019:Tissue Donors