title: Awareness about organ donation especially kidney donation in Nurpur Shahan, a rural community area in Islamabad, Pakistan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the level of awareness and ethical issues related to organ donation especially kidney donation and the willingness to donate a kidney among the rural population of Pakistan.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross sectional study was conducted in a sample of 324 subjects residing in Nurpur Shahan by means of a pre tested questionnaire. Data collection was carried out via a face to face interview and the data was analyzed using SPSS 10.0 and associations were tested using the Chi-square test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Knowledge about organ donation was significantly associated with age (p = 0.00) and education (p = 0.024). Allowance of organ donation in religion was an important factor in determining the attitude of individuals towards organ donation and their willingness to donate. Media emerged as a major source of information for the population of Nurpur Shahan; kidney was the organ most known for its donation. Most (69%) respondents did not consider organ vending to be ethically correct but a sizeable proportion (25%) thought it may be considered in times of dire need.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Awareness of organ donation in our sample was high and more than half of the people were willing to become donors.
authors.affiliation: Shifa College of Medicine, Islamabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Sana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maroof
authors.forename: Nimrah
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kiyani
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zaman
authors.forename: Raisa Khan
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Gul
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nayyar
authors.forename: Ayesha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Azmat
authors.forename: Nageen
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Anwar
authors.forename: Rahim
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Saima
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iqbal
authors.forename: Aliya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Junaid
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001364:Awareness; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007668:Kidney; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010154:Pakistan; D012424:Rural Population; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000523:psychology*; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement; D055815:Young Adult