Abstract
Objective: To assess awareness and attitude of medical students about organ donation.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2014 at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and comprised medical students. The participants were asked about their religious and other beliefs towards organ donation, their reasons for not donating organs, and their personal opinions about organ donation through a questionnaire. SPSS 21 was used for data analysis.
Results: Of the 481 participants, 250(52%) were females, and 231(48%) were males. The overall mean age was 21.36 +/- 1.63 years. Besides, 437(90.9%) students knew what organ donation means, 433(90%) supported organ donation, and 90(18.7%) knew someone who had donated an organ. Moreover, 245(50.9%) participants were willing to donate their organ to their family alone, 198(41.2%) were willing to donate to any deserving patient while 439(91.3%) rejected that religion precluded organ donation, and 354(73.6%) did not know about the grafting of organs from a man to a woman and vice versa.
Conclusion: Awareness and attitude towards organ donation were not up to the mark among the participants.