Attitudes towards organ donation in Syria: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The perception of organ donation and brain death among Syrian population has not been previously explored. The goal of this study is to evaluate the attitude and knowledge of organ donation among Syrians and the willingness of this population to donate their organs. METHODS: We conducted a survey-based cross-sectional study in four hospitals in Aleppo, Syria in November 2019. Patient demographic, awareness of brain death; and attitude toward organ donation were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 350 individuals were invited to participate in the survey among whom 303 (197 females, 106 males) agreed to participate in the study (87% response rate). The majority of our participants (n = 249, 82%) heard about organ donation with television (n = 166, 55%), social media (n = 77, 25%), and the internet (n = 77, 25%) being the most common sources of information. When assessing knowledge about brain death, only 40% (n = 116) answered 3 or more questions (out of 5) correctly. Fifty-eight percent (n = 176) of respondents agreed with the idea of organ donation and 183 (62%) would like to donate their organs one day. The leading motivation to organ donation was the desire to help (n = 234, 77%), while the most common reason to refuse donation was the refusal to disfigure a dead body by removing an organ (n = 125, 41%). Religious reasons were cited as motivation for organ donation by 43% of participants (n = 130), and a reason for refusing to donate organs by 24% (n = 71). Most respondents (n = 261, 88%) were unaware of the laws and legislations related to organ donation in Syria. When asked if religion and law were encouraging organ donation, 76% of respondents (n = 226) would donate their organs. Although more positive attitude was found in those with better brain death knowledge (score ≥ 3), this did not translate into more willingness to donate organs in this group of participants. CONCLUSIONS: The promotion of organ donations from deceased donors is a necessity given the rising shortage of organs. The information provided by this study could help policy makers build future strategies to promote deceased organ donation programs and overcome current obstacles preventing such initiatives from achieving their goals.