Identification of Effective Factors on Decision Making for Organ Donation in Volunteer Blood Donors in Mashhad

Nowadays, organ donation is used as a new therapeutic approach to replace the members of the patients with advanced functional disabilities. Also understanding the relationships between altruistic health acts such as blood donation and willingness to donate organs is important to aid therapeutic research advances. This study was done with the scope of exploring the knowledge and opinions of Iranian volunteer blood donors about organ donation. This cross-sectional study was performed on 504 volunteer blood donors referred to blood transfusion centers of Mashhad, Iran, in 2014-5. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect demographic and religious data. The validity and reliability of the self-reported questionnaire were confirmed. Participants were selected by cluster sampling. Mann-Whitney U test was performed to compare the means. Categorical variables were analyzed using Chi-square and Fisher's exact test. 473 out of 504 volunteer blood donors (93.85%) were men. The mean age of the participants was 34.44±9.5 years. 80% of the participants were willing to donate organs of their families after brain death whereas only 67 participants (13.29%) had organ donation card. 44% of the volunteer blood donors didn’t have information about organ donation. Television programs had prominent great role in motivating people toward organ donation (63.1%). The factors influencing decisions to donate organs in volunteer blood donors are education, gender, the number of donations, and awareness of religious leaders' Fatwa. Volunteer blood donors did not have adequate knowledge towards organ donation. Television programs are suggested to be arranged and broadcast in order to encourage the individuals to donate organs. Advertising and culture creation can lead to positive outcomes in raising awareness about organ donation.