title: Motivation for organ donation among college students in the United States.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The majority of the patients presently waiting for an organ are waiting for a kidney. Living kidney donation by about 0.1% of the adult population of a nation may completely eliminate kidney shortage. We investigated the concerns of college students toward charitable and compensated organ donation.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 40-question survey was conducted. The respondents were students of the Biology Department of Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah, United States. The data were tabulated and analyzed. Tests of association among potentially linked attributes and the difference between two independent proportions were performed at the 0.05 level of significance and P-values were also calculated using XLSTAT software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The participants (n = 321) were 47% male, 53% female, 89% Caucasian, and 93% healthy, and 7% of the respondents had some health conditions. Of the respondents, 55% were ages 18 to 25 and 40% were ages 26 to 50 years; 43% were unmarried or single, 57% were married, and 85% had health insurance. About 65% of the respondents lived in small cities and the rest lived in large cities (23%) or the countryside (9%). There was no significant association between gender, level of education, location of living, and household income in relation to belief in organ donation with or without compensation, except that males favored compensated organ donation over females (P = .004). Rumors on organ theft and extraction of organ from questionable brain-dead patients had not negatively affected the decision of participants on being listed as organ donors in their driver's license (P = .0001). Those who considered organ donation ethically acceptable also believed that a person has the right to sale a kidney (P = .015) and the donor party should be somehow compensated (P = .001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A large percentage of college students supports compensated organ donation and considers that compensation will increase organ donation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah, USA. Electronic address: Ruhul.kuddus@uvu.edu.
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Kuddus
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah, USA.
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Mehrizy
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Minaie
authors.affiliation: Office of Academic Research, Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah, USA.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: El-Saidi
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah, USA.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: El Ezzi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005376:Financial Management; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014589:Utah; D055815:Young Adult