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Updated: Jun 11, 2026
Study of Experimental Organ Donation Models for Lung Transplantation
Published on: March 15, 2024
Network analysis of organ donation willingness, attitude, and death among Chinese university students
Lele Xiao1,2,3, Zheng Ren1,4, Haoyang Li1
1School of Politics and Public Administration, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, China.
Purpose:
The psychological mechanisms underlying university students' willingness to donate, particularly the interplay among donation attitudes, death attitudes, and donation willingness, remain insufficiently understood. Conventional regression approaches are limited in capturing the complex interrelationships among these psychological constructs, highlighting the need for a more integrative analytical framework.
Methods:
A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 960 Chinese university students from December 23 to 31, 2024. The questionnaire included organ donation attitude scale, the Death Attitude Profile-Revised, and demographic information. Network analysis was performed using the EBICglasso algorithm with LASSO regularization to estimate a Gaussian graphical model. Node strength and bridge strength were computed as centrality indices, with stability assessed via 1,000 bootstrap samples.
Results:
Network analysis identified reasons for obstructing organ donation as the most central node (strength = 2.07), followed by approach acceptance (strength = 0.66) and disagreement with the value of organ donation (strength = 0.65). Bridge centrality analysis further revealed that reasons for obstructing organ donation (bridge strength = 1.59) and donation willingness (bridge strength = 1.05) served as key connectors linking the donation attitude and death attitude communities. Stability analyses demonstrated robust centrality estimates (CS-coefficient = 0.62 for node strength and 0.75 for bridge strength).
Conclusion:
The findings suggest that perceived barriers to donation, positive valuation of donation, and adaptive death attitudes play pivotal roles within the psychological network influencing donation willingness. To enhance organ donation rates, interventions should simultaneously address cognitive barriers, incorporate death education, and strengthen value-based advocacy. These culturally tailored strategies may provide a foundation for promoting voluntary organ donation among university students in China.
