Knowledge, Attitude, and Willingness Towards Organ Donation Among Medical and Health Sciences Students in Central Region, Saudi Arabia

Purpose: In this modern era, organ transplantation has become an important treatment method for certain diseases. Doctors and allied health professionals play important roles in continuing its advocacy and sharing knowledge within the community; thus, educating the public on organ donation is paramount. The present study aimed to understand the knowledge, attitude, and willingness toward organ donation of medical and health sciences students. Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study from January to March 2020. The pretested questionnaire was prepared on Google Forms, and the link was shared with 467 students graduating in medicine, dentistry, nursing, physiotherapy, and paramedical studies to analyze their knowledge, attitudes, and willingness towards organ donation. Of 467 students, 425 students provided complete answers and were included in data analysis. Results: We found that knowledge scores were uniformly low among students in all specialties except for those studying medicine and physiotherapy (p = 0.001). Moreover, female students scored higher than male students in all the three domains of knowledge, attitude, and willingness toward organ donation, and such was statistically significant (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Since final-year medical and health sciences students will soon graduate and join their respective professions, we recommend the integration of the topic of organ donation into their final-year curriculum to provide them with adequate knowledge so that they can provide proper guidance to the general public. Similarly, the advocacy in promoting organ donation should be increased through the use of appropriate mediums to change the attitudes and enhance the willingness of people.