Awareness on Organ Donation Among Young People

This study investigated the level of organ donation awareness among students at vocational schools of different sectors in order to measure of awareness of organ donation among young population of our society.

Voluntary participants consisted of 404 students who were in their second term at vocational schools affiliated to our university. Participants were from a health services vocational school (n = 167; 41.3%), a social sciences vocational school (n = 77; 19.1%), or from 2 technical sciences vocational schools (n = 160; 39.6%). We collected data during face-to-face interviews. We used the following forms: sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, organ-tissue donation and transplant information, and the Organ-Tissue Donation and Transplant Information Scale.

Mean age was 20.9 years (range, 17-58 y). Female-to-male ratio was 1:1.21. Among participants, 2.2% stated that they had donated their organs, 27.7% had considered organ donation, 30.2% were unwilling to donate, and 41.8% were indecisive. Among participants, 53.5% stated their desire to have detailed information. Rate of students who already had information on how to donate organs was 35.1%. Mean Organ-Tissue Donation and Transplant Information Scale scores were 9.78 ± 4.38 (range, 0-16) for health services vocational school participants, 9.24 ± 4.72 (range, 0-16) for social sciences vocational school participants, and 8.24 ± 3.96 (range, 0-16) for technical vocational school participants.

Our results suggested that many participants (especially for participants at schools other than health) did not have proper information about organ donation. Information campaigns to explain the social, legal, and technical infrastructure of organ donation for young people will simultaneously increase their awareness and the tendency for increased awareness among the whole society about organ donation.