title: Knowledge and opinions about tissue donation  and transplantation among Polish students  and physicians.
abstract: The idea of transplantation seems to be commonly identified by lay and professional people only with transplantation of vascularized organs like kidney or heart. The question arises whether there is any awareness of tissue transplantation among the public. A survey was therefore undertaken to assess awareness of and approaches to tissue donation and transplantation among selected social groups. A questionnaire on donation and transplantation issues was administered to respondents from the following groups: secondary school students, non-medical university students, medical university students, physicians. On the whole, 441 non-randomly sampled respondents were surveyed. The awareness of tissue transplantation is narrower than the awareness of organ transplantation. The support for tissue transplantation is weaker than for organ transplantation. This study shows that there is an acute need for education in the legal aspects of transplantation and that ways of motivating healthcare professionals to promote transplantation should be developed.
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Tissue and Cell Banking, ul. Chalubinskiego 5, 02-004 Warszawa, Poland. ewao@post.pl
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Olender
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Palczynska
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rykowski
authors.forename: Izabela
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Uhrynowska-Tyszkiewicz
authors.forename: Artur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kaminski
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003625:Data Collection; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D010820:Physicians; D011044:Poland; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016378:Tissue Transplantation; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement