title: Families who previously refused organ donation would agree to donate in a new situation: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The limited supply of organs restricts the number of transplantations. Studying the families who refuse donation may help to increase the number of transplantations.
  
  
  METHODS
  This descriptive cross-sectional study used a questionnaire to obtain information from 61 family members who had refused to donate organs from January 1997 to December 2004. The exclusion criterion was donor death less than 1 year from the study. The mean age of subjects was 41 ± 12.7 years (range, 18 to 79 years) with 66% women.
  
  
  RESULTS
  More than half (36 of 69; 52%) of the families who refused donation would agree to donate in a new situation. The primary reasons for refusing donation were: disagreement among family members (25 of 128; 19%), lack of knowledge regarding the deceased's wishes (22 of 128; 17%), and previous request from the deceased not to be a donor (17 of 128; 13%). The most frequent suggestions to increase organ donation were to provide families with more information (43 of 149; 29%), initiate contact among the families (36 of 149; 24%), and involve a trusted physician (30 of 149; 20%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most family members who refused organ donation changed their minds and would agree to donate in a few situation. Most of the reasons for refusing to donate reflected a lack of information and discussion on the topic.
authors.affiliation: Organization for Procurement of Organ and Tissues, Hospital de Base (FUNFARME) of the Medical School (FAMERP) of São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Morais
authors.forename: R C M A
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Duca
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Rol
authors.forename: H C C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: de Felicio
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Arroyo-
authors.forename: M C O S
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Miyazaki
authors.forename: N A M
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Domingos
authors.forename: N I
authors.initials: NI
authors.lastname: Valerio
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abbud-Filho
authors.forename: J F P
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.forename: R F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: da Silva
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001293:Attitude to Death; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003142:Communication; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016377:Organ Transplantation / Q000523:psychology*; D010819:Physician's Role; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D020458:Third-Party Consent; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement; D055815:Young Adult