Knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding whole body donation among medical professionals in a hospital in India

Abstract

Voluntary body donation has become an important source of cadavers for anatomical study and education. The objective of this study was to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) regarding whole body donation among medical professionals in a medical institute in India. A cross sectional study was conducted at Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, India, among medical doctors. Data was collected from consenting individuals in the age group of 25-65 years by convenience sampling method. A semi-structured, pretested, questionnaire designed to assess KAP regarding whole body donation was provided to the study population (n = 106); 97 individuals returned the completed questionnaire. Results showed that 8% of the medical professionals were unaware of the term body donation and 85% believed that donated bodies were misused. A large proportion of the respondents did not know about the authority that oversaw body donation, or its criteria for accepting donated bodies and diseases for which bodies were screened before acceptance. Only 22% of polled physicians were willing to donate their bodies for medical education, but 68% expected the public to do the same. While only 7% had already registered their own names for body donation, 64% were not aware of any known person having registered and 72% indicated that their decision would not be influenced even if they knew of friends who had registered. These results suggest that educating medical students and professionals regarding the altruistic act of body donation is as important as educating the general public.

Body Donation after Death: The Mental Setup of Educated People

“…Dishonoured condition and mishandling of cadavers is a bar for body donation in acquaintance group. Previous study among medical professionals are also showed that only 22% physicians are willing to donate their bodies for medical education, 85% believed that donated bodies were misused [19]. A study among Turkish anatomist is reported that 63.9% would not consider themselves to donate their bodies as they were not prepared.…”

Factors associated with organ donation

“…They also found that 22% physicians were willing to donate their bodies and 68% expected the public to do the same. [7] Eide et al . investigated the need for learning and communication of intensive care doctors and neurosurgeons toward organ donation.…”

Awareness of body and organ donation amongst first year MBBS students of Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna

“…It is therefore important to understand the impact of educational process among medical students and their attitude towards organ donation and body donation. 8,9 49.43% of the students were ready to donate organs without any hesitation while 33.71% of the students would donate only after being convinced. 40.44% of the students were willing to donate for both organ transplantation & for dissection purpose by department of Anatomy.…”