[Attitude and opinion of medical students about organ donation and transplantation].
We analyzed the opinion and understanding of medical students about organ donation and transplantation.


METHODS
347 students voluntarily completed a questionnaire with 17 queries concerning organ donation and transplantation. They were analyzed to identify general tendencies and divided into five groups, according to their year of study (first through sixth year), to assess differences among the years. Students of the fifth and sixth years were placed in the same group. Results were analyzed by the Chi-square test.


RESULTS
The intention to become a post mortem or living donor was of 89% and 90% respectively; however, only 62% were aware of living donation risks. 70% of the 347 students admitted regular or little knowledge of the subject, 90.2% considered organ transplantation an important issue for a medical graduation program, 76.9% considered informed/expressed consent the best organ donation criterion and 64.3% of them chose severity of patient disease as the best allocation condition. As students progressed in their studies their understanding about transplantation improved. Students of the fourth, fifth and sixth year manifested a negative attitude about organ donation to alcohol addicts, non donors, drug users, law offenders and foreigners.


CONCLUSIONS
This data show the great interest and positive attitude of medical students toward organ donation and transplantation, despite the fact that most of them admitted having insufficient knowledge on the subject. A negative attitude by students of the fourth, fifth and sixth year on organ donation to alcohol addicts, non donors, drug users, law offenders and foreigners was also observed.
Galvao
Flavio H F
FH
Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil. fgalvao@usp.br
Caires
Renato A
RA
Azevedo-Neto
Raimundo S
RS
Mory
Eduardo K
EK
Figueira
Estela R R
ER
Otsuzi
Thiago S
TS
Bacchella
Telesforo
T
Machado
Marcel C C
MC
D001938:Brazil; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D016377:Organ Transplantation / Q000523:psychology*; D012577:Schools, Medical; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000941:ethics / Q000523:psychology*; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data