title: Do Age and Religion Have an Impact on the Attitude to Organ Transplantation?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Religious issues may be a significant reason for the lack of organs for transplantation. Younger people have a more enthusiastic attitude toward organ donation. The goal of the present study was to determine whether age and religion affect people's attitudes to organ transplantation.
  
  
  METHODS
  This trial was a diagnostic poll study using an original survey questionnaire involving 1273 people living in Podlaskie Voivodeship.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Treatment with the use of organs from dead donors was approved by 88.3% of the respondents aged ≤60 years and 70.5% of those aged >60 years; the highest number of those who opposed this procedure occurred in the group aged >60 years (22.3%). Baptists approved of the method more often than persons of other religions; Muslims disapproved of it more often than others (25%). Approximately 96% of the participants, regardless of religion, had a positive attitude toward organ transplantation, but only 81% aged >60 years had a positive attitude toward organ donation; there were significantly more Catholics in this group (P < .026). In the group aged >60 years, 63.8% expressed their consent; 66.7% of them were Muslims and Baptists. Approximately 86% of persons aged ≤60 years were willing to donate their own organs after death. These people were significantly more often Catholic (P < .045).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Age and religion have a considerable influence on positive attitudes toward transplantation. The majority of younger people, as well as Catholics, approve of the removal of organs from living donors and from dead donors.
authors: Department of Clinical Medicine, Medical University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland.
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Kobus
authors: 1(st) Department of Nephrology with Dialysis Unit, Medical University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland.
authors: J S
authors: JS
authors: Malyszko
authors: 2nd Nephrology Department, Medical University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland. Electronic address: jolmal@poczta.onet.pl.
authors: Jolanta
authors: J
authors: Małyszko
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001290:Attitude; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002410:Catholicism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007514:Islam; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016377:Organ Transplantation; D011044:Poland; D033303:Protestantism; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014019:Tissue Donors; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement