title: Teenagers' point of view on living donor kidney transplantation: Cinderella or princess?
abstract: Living kidney donation is an important clinical option, encountering different fortunes in the world.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To analyse the opinions of a large subset of older teenagers attending high school (7999 students, median age 18) on different aspects of living kidney transplantation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Analysis of semistructured questionnaires submitted within an educational campaign on dialysis and transplantation in the high schools of Torino and its county (about 2,000,000 inhabitants).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Over 90% of the students had already heard of transplantation, mainly via television (88.4% county, 84.5% city). 80% would donate a kidney to a family member (3.5% wouldn't, 16.5% uncertain); answers were correlated with sex (females more than males p<0.0001), school type (istituti tecnici versus licei p=0.007), interest (yes versus other p<0.0001). A lower percent of individuals would receive a kidney (58.4% county, 59.4% city), only 10% would ask for donation. Over 40% of students consider legally buying a kidney a patient's right, only 26.6% would discourage this choice. The answers were correlated with the reverse pattern as for non-mercenary donation with type of school (licei more than istituti tecnici: p<0.0001), sex (males versus females p<0.0001), interest (not versus yes: p=0.002).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Teenagers are favourable towards all forms of living kidney donation. The lower prevalence of positive answers on acceptance versus donation suggests that fears of endangering the donor's health may be one of the causes for a low living donation rate in our setting. The mixed answers on mercenary donation suggest discussing this complex issue in future educational programs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Torino and Unit of Nephrology, Dialysis and Transplantation, San Giovanni Battista Hospital, Torino, Italy. giuseppe.piccoli@unito.it
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Piccoli
authors.forename: Giuseppe Paolo
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Segoloni
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Soragna
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mezza
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Burdese
authors.forename: Giuliana
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tognarelli
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Putaggio
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bergamo
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Consiglio
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vespertino
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bonetto
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jeantet
authors.forename: Giorgina Barbara
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Piccoli
authors.forename: Franca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Giacchino
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gai
authors.forename: Rosanna
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dell'Olio
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001290:Attitude; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires