ABSTRACT

Aim

Organ transplantation has become the standard therapy for the treatment of several end-stage diseases with organ failure. However, the increase in organ transplantation is only possible with the increasing number of donated organs. Knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of medical faculty students about organ donation and transplantation is socially important to positively affect the increase in organ donation rates. In this study, we aimed to investigate perspectives, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of medical faculty students about organ donation and transplantation.

Material and Methods

A 27-item survey questioning age, education level, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours about organ donation and transplantation, was administered to Dumlupınar University Medical Faculty students (n = 110). Results were analyzed with SPSS-16.0 statistic programme.

Results

There was a statistically significant difference among all classes in terms of ‘Do you support organ donation?’ and ‘Have you donated your organs?’ questions (respectively; p = 0.017, p = 0.010). Statistically significant difference was observed in each class in terms of the knowledge about organ donation (p=0.000). The initial tendency is in the direction of media publicity and the trend is towards informing the public through educational institutions and media in terms of ‘What kind of attempts and applications should be made in order to promote organ donation and to increase the public’s awareness about organ donation and transplantation in Turkey?’ question. On the other hand, it was observed that the widespread tendency is in the direction of public information through media and educational institutions in terms of ‘What are the applications that can lead to an increase in the number of organ transplantation and to the spread of organ donation in Turkey?’ question.

Conclusion

We observed that the knowledge of medical faculty students about organ donation and transplantation increases in parallel to the increase in medical school education level and their attitudes and behaviours change in a positive manner.