Kidney donation: bridging the gap in the shortage of kidney transplants in Malaysia

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to identify factors that affect willingness to donate kidneys posthumously among Malaysians.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire-based cross-sectional study assessing demographics, attitude, spirituality, knowledge and willingness to donate a kidney was conducted among adult Malaysians with oral informed consent. The total number of samples was 1,001 respondents. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was performed.FindingsA total of 29.17% (n = 292) were willing to donate kidneys, while the remaining 70.83% (n = 709) were not. The mean spirituality score was 80.95 ± 13.79 (maximum score 100), mean attitude score was 52.88 ± 8.074 (maximum score 70) and mean knowledge score was 1.84 ± 0.99 (maximum score 5). A higher score demonstrated a stronger spiritual level, positive attitude and better knowledge. Factors affecting willingness to donate a kidney were ethnicity (odds ratio [OR] = 15.625, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.043–0.094) and attitude toward kidney donation score (OR = 0.924, 95% CI = 0.902–0.945).Originality/valueCulture-specific steps to improve programs that may contribute toward improving kidney donation posthumously among Malaysians should be developed. Results drawn from this work demonstrate that policymakers, health-care workers and stakeholders should work together to promote effective policies and program implementation to reduce the ever-increasing gap between the need and shortage crisis of kidney donation.

To Be A Donor or Not to Be? The Intentionality of Organ Donation for Transplantation among Residents in Dungun, Terengganu

“…These disparities may be attributed not only to knowledge measurement (the substance and amount of questions), but also to several cultural and country-specific characteristics such as traditional values, religious views, compensating systems, institutional credibility, and ideals (Aijing et al, 2016). Among Malaysians, most were still not willing to donate kidneys, despite appropriate knowledge dissemination (Riyanti et al, 2014), which is possibly why there was no significant association between knowledge and willingness to donate a kidney in the current work (Islahudin et al, 2020). According to Fan et al (2022), further study is needed to confirm the association between knowledge and organ donation intention (Fan et al, 2022).…”