Organ Donation and Obstacles: University Student Survey

Background: Organ transplantation has helped improve the quality of life of patients with lethal terminal organ failure. This success is owed to the progress made in many fields such as surgery, immunology…However, in our country Morocco, we are faced with reluctance to donate. The study’s objective is to evaluate the perception of organ donation among university students. Methods: We conducted this cross-sectional study with descriptive and analytical aims. Our target population consisted of 991 university students from eight higher education structures. An anonymous questionnaire was distributed to those students by a single interviewer. The questions of the survey answered four main themes. Thus, two types of studies were done. The first was a descriptive study of the socio-demographic characteristics of the selected population and their knowledge and attitudes about organ donation. The second was an analytical study of the correlation between the socio-demographic characteristics, type and level of education of the target population and their knowledge and attitudes towards organ donation. Results: 97.2% of the respondents have already heard about organ donation. If 836 of the students (84.4%) thought that transplantation could be an effective therapeutic alternative, 155 of the students (15.6%) were not aware of this possibility. Furthermore, 298 students, which means 30.1% of the students, did not know that organ transplantation was practiced in Morocco. The causes of refusal found in our study were numerous. 68.5% of students blamed the lack of information as the main cause of their reluctance. 64.7% were afraid of organ trafficking. 41.1% refused the idea of mutilating the body of the deceased, which could impact the funeral. 37.3%