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Effectiveness of Organ Donation Information Campaigns in Germany: A Facebook Based Online Survey

BACKGROUND: The German transplantation system is in a crisis due to a lack of donor organs. Information campaigns are one of the main approaches to increase organ donation rates. Since 2012, German health insurance funds are obliged by law to inform their members about organ donation. We raised the...

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Autores principales: Terbonssen, Tobias, Settmacher, Utz, Wurst, Christine, Dirsch, Olaf, Dahmen, Uta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications Inc. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4705356/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26220442
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/ijmr.4287
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author Terbonssen, Tobias
Settmacher, Utz
Wurst, Christine
Dirsch, Olaf
Dahmen, Uta
author_facet Terbonssen, Tobias
Settmacher, Utz
Wurst, Christine
Dirsch, Olaf
Dahmen, Uta
author_sort Terbonssen, Tobias
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The German transplantation system is in a crisis due to a lack of donor organs. Information campaigns are one of the main approaches to increase organ donation rates. Since 2012, German health insurance funds are obliged by law to inform their members about organ donation. We raised the hypothesis: The willingness to sign a donor card rises due to the subsequent increase of specific knowledge by receiving the information material of the health insurance funds. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to assess the influence of information campaigns on the specific knowledge and the willingness to donate organs. METHODS: We conducted an online survey based on recruitment via Facebook groups, advertisements using the snowball effect, and on mailing lists of medical faculties in Germany. Besides the demographic data, the willingness to hold an organ donor card was investigated. Specific knowledge regarding transplantation was explored using five factual questions resulting in a specific knowledge score. RESULTS: We recruited a total of 2484 participants, of which 32.7% (300/917) had received information material. Mean age was 29.9 (SD 11.0, median 26.0). There were 65.81% (1594/2422) of the participants that were female. The mean knowledge score was 3.28 of a possible 5.00 (SD 1.1, median 3.0). Holding a donor card was associated with specific knowledge (P<.001), but not with the general education level (P=.155). Receiving information material was related to holding a donor card (P<.001), but not to a relevant increase in specific knowledge (difference in mean knowledge score 3.20 to 3.48, P=.006). The specific knowledge score and the percentage of organ donor card holders showed a linear association (P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: The information campaign was not associated with a relevant increase in specific knowledge, but with an increased rate in organ donor card holders. This effect is most likely related to the feeling of being informed, together with an easy access to the organ donor card.
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spelling pubmed-47053562016-01-12 Effectiveness of Organ Donation Information Campaigns in Germany: A Facebook Based Online Survey Terbonssen, Tobias Settmacher, Utz Wurst, Christine Dirsch, Olaf Dahmen, Uta Interact J Med Res Original Paper BACKGROUND: The German transplantation system is in a crisis due to a lack of donor organs. Information campaigns are one of the main approaches to increase organ donation rates. Since 2012, German health insurance funds are obliged by law to inform their members about organ donation. We raised the hypothesis: The willingness to sign a donor card rises due to the subsequent increase of specific knowledge by receiving the information material of the health insurance funds. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to assess the influence of information campaigns on the specific knowledge and the willingness to donate organs. METHODS: We conducted an online survey based on recruitment via Facebook groups, advertisements using the snowball effect, and on mailing lists of medical faculties in Germany. Besides the demographic data, the willingness to hold an organ donor card was investigated. Specific knowledge regarding transplantation was explored using five factual questions resulting in a specific knowledge score. RESULTS: We recruited a total of 2484 participants, of which 32.7% (300/917) had received information material. Mean age was 29.9 (SD 11.0, median 26.0). There were 65.81% (1594/2422) of the participants that were female. The mean knowledge score was 3.28 of a possible 5.00 (SD 1.1, median 3.0). Holding a donor card was associated with specific knowledge (P<.001), but not with the general education level (P=.155). Receiving information material was related to holding a donor card (P<.001), but not to a relevant increase in specific knowledge (difference in mean knowledge score 3.20 to 3.48, P=.006). The specific knowledge score and the percentage of organ donor card holders showed a linear association (P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: The information campaign was not associated with a relevant increase in specific knowledge, but with an increased rate in organ donor card holders. This effect is most likely related to the feeling of being informed, together with an easy access to the organ donor card. JMIR Publications Inc. 2015-07-28 /pmc/articles/PMC4705356/ /pubmed/26220442 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/ijmr.4287 Text en ©Tobias Terbonssen, Utz Settmacher, Christine Wurst, Olaf Dirsch, Uta Dahmen. Originally published in the Interactive Journal of Medical Research (http://www.i-jmr.org/), 28.07.2015. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Interactive Journal of Medical Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.i-jmr.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Terbonssen, Tobias
Settmacher, Utz
Wurst, Christine
Dirsch, Olaf
Dahmen, Uta
Effectiveness of Organ Donation Information Campaigns in Germany: A Facebook Based Online Survey
title Effectiveness of Organ Donation Information Campaigns in Germany: A Facebook Based Online Survey
title_full Effectiveness of Organ Donation Information Campaigns in Germany: A Facebook Based Online Survey
title_fullStr Effectiveness of Organ Donation Information Campaigns in Germany: A Facebook Based Online Survey
title_full_unstemmed Effectiveness of Organ Donation Information Campaigns in Germany: A Facebook Based Online Survey
title_short Effectiveness of Organ Donation Information Campaigns in Germany: A Facebook Based Online Survey
title_sort effectiveness of organ donation information campaigns in germany: a facebook based online survey
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4705356/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26220442
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/ijmr.4287
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