title: Public opinion on organ donation in Saudi Arabia.
abstract: To evaluate factors affecting the knowledge and/or attitudes of the Saudi Arabian public with respect to organ donation and transplantation, a cross sectional study was conducted on a random sample of 948 Saudi citizens between 20-60 years of age during 2005. The collected data included: knowledge about organ donation campaigns, knowledge of the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation (SCOT), religious knowledge towards related issues, attitudes toward organ donation and self or close-relative experience of organ transplantation. The study revealed that 58.5% of participants heard about the existence of SCOT, 91.1% knew the need for organ donation, and 92.7 knew that organ donation could save lives. The organ donation campaign was known to 62.3% of the participants. Of these participants, 57.9% were made aware of organ donation campaigns through TV ads, 52.8% from magazines and newspapers and 11.7% from scientific sources. While 23.7% of the participants were unaware of any issued Islamic fatwa regarding organ donation, another 36.1% did not respond to this question revealing a lack of knowledge. Forty-two percent of the respondents agreed to donate their organs after death. Among the various reasons against organ donation, 27.5% feared that the act of organ donation contradicted their religious beliefs, while 3.5% believed that there was no benefit to organ donation. It is concluded that a need for proper information dissemination exists. A multidisciplinary approach is suggested including government support backed by strong recommendations from knowledgeable religious sources.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. aa_alam@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Awatif Ali
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Alam
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016377:Organ Transplantation; D011639:Public Opinion; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement