Survey of medical students of Shahed University in Iran about attitude and willingness toward organ transplantation.
BACKGROUND
Transplantation is a successful procedure that prolongs the lives of people suffering from debilitating diseases. The purpose of this study was to assess medical students' attitude toward organ donation.


METHODS
The study population consisted of 262 medical students with a mean age of 22.1 +/- 2.5 years who were surveyed using a reliable questionnaire that examined their attitudes and willingness. All data analyses were performed using Chi-square and analysis of variance tests with SPSS.


RESULTS
The medical students had highly positive attitude toward organ donation (mean score 4.34 +/- 0.46) and a great willingness. Participants were more willing to donate their own organs than those of a deceased relative (85% vs 49.2%) to help others more than to develop science (91.2% vs 8.8%). The greatest willingness among students was kidney (84%) donation. There was no correlation between age, gender, education levels, and attitude toward organ donation.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings necessitate an organized education program of medical students in all aspects of organ and tissue donation.
Sanavi
S
S
Department of Nephrology, Shahed University, Mustafa Khomeini Hospital, Tehran, Iran.
Afshar
R
R
Lotfizadeh
A R
AR
Davati
A
A
D001293:Attitude to Death; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003625:Data Collection; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006806:Human Rights; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000523:psychology*; D014495:Universities