Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Transplant. Dec 18, 2024; 14(4): 95419
Published online Dec 18, 2024. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v14.i4.95419
Public knowledge about and attitudes toward organ donation, and public barriers to donate in Jordan: A cross-sectional study
Adham Al-Salhi, Elham H Othman
Adham Al-Salhi, Elham H Othman, Faculty of Nursing, Applied Science Private University, Amman 11962, Jordan
Adham Al-Salhi, Department of Nursing, Jordan Hospital, Amman 11152, Jordan
Author contributions: Al-Salhi A conceived and designed the work and performed data collection; Othman EH performed data analysis and interpretation; Al-Salhi A and Othman EH drafted the article, performed critical revision of the article, and final approval of the version to be submitted.
Institutional review board statement: The study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The Research Ethics Committee in the Applied Science Private University approved this study.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained from participants.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Data sharing statement: The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Elham H Othman, PhD, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Nursing, Applied Science Private University, Shafa Badran, Amman 11962, Jordan. elham.othman@ymail.com
Received: April 9, 2024
Revised: June 11, 2024
Accepted: July 1, 2024
Published online: December 18, 2024
Processing time: 163 Days and 9.3 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Organ donation is a critical issue that is receiving greater attention worldwide. In Jordan, the public’s knowledge about and attitudes toward organ donation play a significant role in the availability of organs for transplantation.

AIM

To assess the public knowledge about and attitudes toward organ donation in Jordan.

METHODS

A cross-sectional design was used to collect data from 396 Jordanian citizens via an online self-reported questionnaire.

RESULTS

Overall, 396 participants were recruited. Of the entire sample, 93.9% of the participants had heard about and had sufficient knowledge about organ donation but they had limited knowledge about brain death. The most common source of information about organ donation was social media networks. Females were found to score significantly higher than males for attitude. Those who had thought about organ donation or registered their names to donate scored significantly higher in terms of attitudes to donation than their counterparts who had not. The most common reasons for limited organ donation practices in Jordan were a lack of awareness programs and insufficient knowledge in society.

CONCLUSION

Greater public understanding of organ donation appears to be associated with more positive attitudes toward organ donation. Most participants responded positively regarding their attitude toward organ donation as they believed that this action could give another person a chance to live. Moreover, most agreed that they would donate their organs after their death. Otherwise, the participants had limited general knowledge about brain death, and most had not registered their names to donate their organs. These findings indicate the need for public awareness campaigns and educational programs to encourage more people to become organ donors.

Keywords: Attitude; Barriers; Jordan; Knowledge; Organ donation; Public

Core Tip: This study sheds light on Jordanian public knowledge and attitudes toward organ donation. Fortunately, our results showed adequate knowledge and favored attitudes toward organ donation, which could be invested to increase the number of organ donors. However, lack of awareness programs, inadequate understanding of brain death, fear of side effects, or fear of falling into organ trafficking may hinder organ donation practices in Jordan. We can create a more informed and willing society to participate in organ donation by implementing comprehensive education efforts through community outreach campaigns, school curriculums, and media campaigns to increase awareness about organ donation.