Study to assess knowledge, attitude and practice regarding organ donation among interns of a medical college in Telangana, India

Abstract

Background: There is a gradual decrease in health status and daily functioning in patients with end stage organ failure and timing of death remains uncertain. Organ transplantation is the only cure to such patients. Organ donation rate in India is only 0.26 per million. This is due to lack of awareness about the need of organ donation and the ignorance of common men and medical fraternity about the importance, procedures, benefits and legal issues of organ donation. The objective of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice regarding organ donation among medical interns.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 160 interns with a pre-tested, semi structured questionnaire in order to assess their knowledge, attitude and practice regarding organ donation. Data collected was analysed using SPSS software.Results: The mean age of the interns was 23.03±0.73 and majority were females (70%). 79.4% of interns were having adequate knowledge and majority (77.5%) were willing for organ donation. Only 5.6% had donor card. Willingness for organ donation was significantly associated with knowledge about organ donation. The major barrier for organ donation was fear of organs misuse. Most common source of information was found to be internet.Conclusions: Though most of the interns had adequate knowledge, still gaps exist in their knowledge, attitude and practices. By giving right knowledge and orientation medicos can be become future organ donors who can then easily motivate their patients to follow the path.

A study on knowledge, attitude and practice about organ donation among college students in Telangana state

“…In the present study, among the participants who did not want to become a donor, 45.4% gave a reason of "Fear of Organs being misused", a similar figure was observed in a study done by Jothula et al and Vaishalay et al 7,9 In regard to the above statement made, another question was asked about the act formulated to regulate the transplantation, 19% knew that there is some act regarding transplantation but only 10% named the Act as "Transplantation of Human Organs Act 2014". There is a government scheme named "Jeevandan" regarding Transplantation of Organs started by Andhra Pradesh state prior to 2014, only 3.9% respondents knew about it, on the contrary at least 41% knew about it in the study conducted by Jothula et al 7 Few other studies showed that the pattern of knowledge about legislative regulations about organ transplantation and government schemes (or organisations) was 73% by Sucharitha et al, 78% by Dardevessis et al, 72% by Dasgupta et al [13][14][15] The present study showed that most (67.8%) of participants were willing for organ donation which was similar to the findings of Shah et al (62%). 8 There were varied results observed in few other studies about willingness, 43% by Vaishaly et al, 53% by Sucharitha et al, 73% by Annadurai et al and 47% in rural Kerala by Manojan et al 9,12,13,16 People always have expectations from the person to whom they donated.…”

“…In this cross-sectional study, it turns out that 100% of the participants have heard term organ donation which was similar to the study done on medical students by Jothula et al (100%) and study done on college of commerce students by Shah et al (87.5%). 7,8 Media is said to be the best mode to get in touch with the society and students in this study have heard about organ donation mostly from television(66.3%) and newspapers (56%). Similar results have been found in a study conducted on patients and their attendants in the outpatient department of Dr. DY Patil Medical College, Pune by Vaishalay et al 9 A study conducted by Khalil et al showed that television drama helps in propagation about health information and organ donation.…”

Awareness of Organ Donation in Newly Admitted Students of Medical College: A Case Control Study in Western Maharashtra.

“…In the present study, all of the 1 st MBBS students had adequate knowledge about organ donation (adequate means more than 50% knowledge). It is similar to study done by Kishore Jothula et al (Jothula & Sreeharshika, 2018). All the participants had heard about organ donation.…”

“…The reasons for this pathetic scenario may be the ignorance of common public about the importance, procedures, benefits and legal issues of organ donation (Ilango et al, 2014). A study stated that even medical fraternity was lacking clarity with regards to the rules and procedures related to organ transplantation (Jothula & Sreeharshika, 2018). This emphasizes that providing adequate knowledge regarding organ donation in the community is the need of the hour.…”

“…The best way to start this is to promote the awareness of the college students, especially those in the medical field, towards organ donation because they will be the most suitable persons to carry the message to the community. As future doctors, medical students can take up the role of promoting organ donation as they are the most critical link in the organ procurement process, by educating and motivating the public to pledge their organs for donation (Jothula & Sreeharshika, 2018). Therefore, assessing medical student's knowledge and awareness regarding organ donation is very important for the future organ supply.…”