Attitudes towards biosample donation in andrology patients

Clinical left-over biosamples are an important source for medical research. Our aim is to ascertain the attitudes of andrology patients towards biosample donation. A survey of 866 andrology patients with diverse andrology conditions was conducted in Shanghai, China from May 2010 to December 2010. The response rate was 75.8%. Of the study patients, 61.4% (95% confidence interval, CI: 0.58–0.65) voiced the opinion that they were willing to donate the residual biosample; 32.0% refused to donate; and 6.6% stated that they were undecided. Unwillingness to give sample was independently associated with having a low level of education (p = 0.047, OR = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.39–0.995) and being infertile patients (p = 0.03, OR = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.39–0.95), while willingness was significantly associated with being cancer patients (p = 0.04, OR = 1.90, 95% CI: 1.03–3.50), being aged 18–29 years (p < 0.01, OR = 5.88, 95% CI: 2.85–12.16) and being aged 30–44 years (p = 0.01, OR = 2.17, 95% CI: 1.20–3.90). Most andrology patients would want to authorize every future research by themselves (82.4%) and obtain their individual research results (75.7%). Less than half of the willing respondents would want to donate semen (44.1%) and testis (41.3%). The results suggested that andrology patients’ willingness to donate samples was low, especially in case of infertile patients. More studies are required to elucidate further causes for the low willingness to donate sample among andrology patients.