University Students' Attitude towards Organ Donation: Is Religious Belief an Obstacle?

This descriptive study was conducted to determine knowledge and attitudes of university students on organ donation descriptive study.

The population of the study was composed of 1800 universty students. A data collection form measuring the students' socio-demographic characteristics and knowledge and attitudes on organ donation/transplantation was used. The data were collected by the researchers using a face-to-face interview technique. In the evaluation of data, descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis and Logistic Regression Analysis were used.

It was determined only 38.6% of the students wanted to donate their organs, and 10.7% did not want to donate their organs due to their religious beliefs. The students who had relatives waiting for organ donation, knew someone who had organ transplantation and heard about organ donation in the family wanted to donate their organs at a statistically significant level. It was determined that the students who were religious, studying in the faculty of theology, and thinking that organ donation is a sin, did not want to donate organs at a statistically significant level. It was determined that among these independent factors, organ donation rate increased by 0.410 with talking about organ donation in the family and by 0.613 with knowing someone waiting for organ transplant while thinking that organ donation is a sin decreased organ donation by 1.5 times.

The students avoided organ donation because of their religious beliefs and lack of knowledge on this subject.