title: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs Toward Organ Donation Among Social Media Users.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Organ transplantation is the optimal treatment for end-stage organ diseases. The demand for organs has exceeded the available supply, which becomes a major obstacle worldwide. Identifying the factors affecting this gap will help in overcoming this obstacle. The purpose of the work was to study the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of organ donation and to determine the knowledge of brain death among social media users.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was conducted among social media users living in Saudi Arabia. A pre-designed self-administrated questionnaire was distributed online randomly on social media networks in 2015. Of the total 1368 participants, only 913 met the criteria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most respondents were between 18 and 29 years of age (61.2%) and living in the central region of Saudi Arabia (64.5%). The majority of respondents received their information from television (57%) and social media (50%) networks; 46.4% of respondents knew that the religious fatwa allowed organ donation; 51% of respondents were willing to donate their organs; 46.5% considered the brain-dead to be deceased, whereas 37.7% considered it a coma; 33.3% did not know if someone who was brain-dead would ever wake up; on the other hand, 323 (35.4%) said yes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study showed that the vast majority of our sample had enough information about organ donation. On the contrary, they had minimal knowledge about brain death. Moreover, a fair percentage of the participants had positive attitudes toward organ donation. Also, the media had a significant effect on the information about organ donation and brain death.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: whajjar@ksu.edu.sa.
authors.forename: W M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Hajjar
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Bin Abdulqader
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Aldayel
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: A W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Alfardan
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: N I
authors.initials: NI
authors.lastname: Alzaidy
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001926:Brain Death; D003128:Coma / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D061108:Social Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013690:Television; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement; D055815:Young Adult