Organ donation: cross-sectional survey of knowledge and personal views of Brazilian medical students and physicians.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the knowledge, attitudes, and behavior associated with cadaver organ donation and transplantation among medical students and physicians.


METHODS
We randomly selected 350 medical students, 150 physicians, and 150 intensive care unit physicians. Each completed a questionnaire consisting of 9 self-administered items, from which we gathered data about their knowledge about brain death and criteria for the diagnosis of brain death; their hypothetical behaviors, assuming willingness to donate their own or their family's organs; their trust in physicians; and their confidence in a diagnosis of brain death made by physicians.


RESULTS
We observed that knowledge about brain death increased with medical education level; the best results were noted in intensive care unit physicians. Agreement to transplant organs from brain-dead donors (odds ratio [OR], 4.58), confidence in brain-death diagnosis by physicians (OR, 2.17), and knowledge about criteria for the diagnosis of brain death (OR, 2.26) were predictors of willingness to donate one's own organs.


CONCLUSIONS
Enhanced medical knowledge of and involvement in donation are needed to achieve cadaver organ donation.
Lima
C X
CX
Hospital Felicio Rocho, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. cxlima@globo.com
Lima
M V B
MV
Cerqueira
R G
RG
Cerqueira
T G
TG
Ramos
T S
TS
Nascimento
M
M
Andrade
C R M
CR
Cunha
D G
DG
Garcia
S L M
SL
D001926:Brain Death; D001938:Brazil; D003422:Critical Care / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D018579:Patient Selection; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000523:psychology; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*