Study of social awareness regarding body donations for scientific and educational purposes

The basis of teaching anatomy is the understanding of the body's structures using human cadavers. Body donation should be a fully conscious and voluntary act. There is growing demand for human cadavers in medical universities. To meet this demand, it is necessary to understand the societal awareness regarding body donation.

The study utilised a proprietary single-choice questionnaire while maintaining the anonymity of the respondents. The study included 1004 individuals, comprising 700 women and 304 men. The analysis employed the Mann-Whitney test and Pearson's chi-squared test with calculation of the Cramer's V coefficient.

Among the respondents, 56.37% considered donating their bodies for scientific and educational purposes. Among the concerns associated with donation, fear of lack of proper respect for the remains by students (18.23%), family opposition (16.24%), and religious reasons (9.16%) were highlighted. Non-religious individuals were more inclined to donate their bodies for scientific and educational purposes than religious individuals (p < 0.001). Residents of rural areas and small towns are less likely to consider donating their bodies for scientific and educational purposes than residents of large cities (p = 0.002). As many as 85.76% of respondents believed that human remains are essential for effective anatomy education.

Increasing public awareness of cadaver donation may contribute to increasing the effectiveness of anatomy teaching at medical universities.