Abstract
With the increasing prevalence of end-stage kidney disease in Bahrain, kidney donation is of vital importance. In this study, we want to assess how financial incentives will influence peoples' views and decisions regarding kidney donation. The aim is to establish strategies to increase the number of kidneys for transplantation in Bahrain. We adapted a previously established questionnaire on financial incentives for living kidney donations. The questionnaire assessed the public opinion in Bahrain on how kidney donation can be influenced by two different financial incentives, namely 10,000 Bahraini Dinars and life-long health insurance. We collected a convenient sample of 446 participants by distributing an electronic version of the questionnaire. IBM SPSS Statistics version 23 software was used for data entry and analysis. Of the total participants, 39% were male and 61% were female. Eighty percent of the participants believed that their chances for kidney donation will not increase in turn of receiving a financial compensation, while 20% of them believed that it will increase. Our study found that generally married participants (70%) find it a preferable development for health insurance companies to offer financial compensation for kidney donation, while nonmarried participants (30%) found it not a preferable but also not an adverse development (P = 0.038). Furthermore, there is a positive correlation between age and preferable views toward financial incentives to increase kidney donation (P < 0.001). Although financial incentives for kidney donation might encourage a minority of the population, the majority will not be influenced by implanting a financial incentives' system for kidney donation.