Knowledge, attitudes and willingness to organ donation among the general public: a cross-sectional

Fan et al. BMC Public Health (2022) 22:918

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13173-1

RESEARCH

Knowledge, attitudes and willingness

to organ donation among the general public:

a cross-sectional survey in China

Xiaojing Fan1†, Meng Li2†, Heike Rolker3

, Yingying Li4

, Jiaoyang Du5

, Duolao Wang6 and Enchang Li4*

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study is to assess the level of knowledge, attitudes, and willingness to organ dona￾tion among the general public in China.

Methods: The study population consisted of 4274 participants from Eastern, Central and Western China. The partici￾pants’ knowledge, attitudes and willingness to organ donation were collected by a self-designed questionnaire con￾sisting of 30 items. Knowledge is measured by 10 items and presented as a 10 point score, attitudes is measured by 20

items using a 5-step Likert scale and total score ranged between 0 and 80; while the willingness to donate is assessed

as binary variable (0=No; 1=Yes). A logistic regression model was used to assess the association of knowledge and

attitudes with willingness to organ donation, controlling for demographic and socioeconomic confounders.

Results: The questionnaire response rate was 94.98%. The mean score (±SD) of the general public’s knowledge

to organ donation was 6.84±1.76, and the mean score (±SD) of attitudes to organ donation was 47.01±9.07. The

general public’s knowledge and attitudes were the highest in Eastern China, followed by West and Central China. The

logistic regression model indicated a positive association between knowledge and the willingness to organ donation

(OR=1.12, 95%CI: 1.08, 1.17; P<0.001); attitudes were also positively potential determinant of more willingness to

organ donation (OR=1.08, 95%CI: 1.07, 1.09; P<0.001).

Conclusions: Knowledge and attitudes were found to be positively associated with the Chinese general public’s

willingness to organ donation. Knowledge about the concept of brain death and the transplant procedure may help

raise the rate of willingness to organ donation.

Keywords: Organ donation, Knowledge, Attitudes, Willingness, China

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Background

For patients with end-stage organ failure, an organ trans￾plantation is a well-established and often the only life￾saving treatment [1]. Globally, the number of patients on

a waiting list to receive an organ transplantation exceeds

the number of organs donors [2, 3]. Te WHO Global

Observatory on Donation and Transplantation recently

estimated that over 130,000 solid organ transplantations

were performed across the globe in 2017, which repre￾sents less than 10% of the global need [4]. Te provision

of deceased donor transplants was shown to be positively

associated with per capita gross national income [5, 6].

According to the International Registry in Organ Dona￾tion and Transplantation (IRODaT), the countries with

the highest number of deceased organ donations in 2019

were Spain, the USA, France, the United Kingdom and

Open Access

†

Xiaojing Fan and Meng Li contributed equally to this article.

*Correspondence: [email protected]

4

Centre of Health and Bioethics Research, Wenzhou Medical University,

Wenzhou Chashan Higher Education Park, Wenzhou 325035, Zhegjiang,

China

Full list of author information is available at the end of the article