Prevalence of socio-demographic and behavioral factors about organ donation in Qatar : a household survey

Abstract EN

Background: A single organ and tissue donor can serve and save eight-fold lives, but availability of organ donors is scarce, posing a grim situation for end-stage organ failure worldwide.

Knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs toward organ donation can help policymakers develop strategies to address the challenges facing organ donation and transplantation in Qatar.

Aim: To assess sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and intentions regarding organ donation in the household population of Qatar.

Methods: A prospective observational household survey was conducted between October and November 2016 in Qatar using a validated questionnaire.

One thousand forty-four individuals aged 18 and older residing in eight municipalities in the country were enrolled in the survey.

Results: Average age was 38 ^ 11 years.

There were 27.4% Qatari citizens and 72.6% nonQatari residents in the survey.

48.9% of the total (1044) were males.

Knowledge [46% (95% C.I.: 45% 247%)], attitude [70% (95% C.I.: 66%–74%)], behavioral beliefs [42% (95% C.I.: 39%–50%)], normative beliefs [29% (95% C.I.: 28%–30%)], control beliefs [–27% (95% C.I.: 224% to 230%)] and intentions towards organ donation [29% (95% C.I.: 27%–31%)] were observed in the study.

Factor analyses were able to explain 70%, 72%, 70%, and 74% variations in knowledge, attitude, beliefs, and intentions domains respectively showing adequacy of construct of the domains for organ donation.

Conclusion: Most of the survey participants showed good attitude but less intention towards organ donation.