title: Examining college students' intentions to become organ donors.
abstract: 502 university students completed survey items on attitudes, experiences, knowledge, and behaviors related to organ and tissue donation (OTD). Despite positive attitudes toward organ donation, only 11% of students formally have declared their intentions to donate through the state registry or by signing an organ card. When asked to report why they have not signed an organ donor card/registry, students reported, "not considering the topic," "intentions to donate in the future," and "general negative attitudes" among other reasons. Students also reported a generally positive attitude toward the topic of OTD and moderate to strong intentions to become organ donors in the future despite feeling somewhat uninformed on the topic. The results are discussed in relation to future campaign message strategies to promote OTD to university students.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, 329 Baldy Hall, Amherst, NY14261, USA. thfeeley@buffalo.edu
authors.forename: Thomas Hugh
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Feeley
authors.forename: Timothy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Servoss
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D006801:Humans; D019520:Living Donors / Q000523:psychology*; D016015:Logistic Models; D009518:New York; D012042:Registries; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires