Knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of Health Sciences students toward organ donation / Haikal Khalidah Khalid and Nur Atira Husna Sukimi

Background: Organ donation rates have continued to fall significantly short of needs worldwide. Similarly, in Malaysia, human organs for transplantation suffer from a chronic shortage. Health Sciences Students can be classified as a future of health care professionals in which has a critical link in encouraging society to drive national donation rates. Thus, in order to raise the donation rates in Malaysia, their knowledge, attitudes, and behavior toward organ donation are crucial. Objectives: To identify the level of general knowledge, attitudes and behavior of Health Sciences Students in UiTM Puncak Alam toward organ donation. Methods: A modified self-administered questionnaire was chosen, and a crosssectional study was chosen as study design. A convenience sampling was used to draw out information from a total of 312 respondents in UiTM Puncak Alam. Results: Of all respondents majority (53.5%, n=167) had good knowledge, and all the respondents (100%, n=312) are aware of organ donation. However, a positive attitude toward organ donation showed only less than half of the participants (45.8%, n=143). Similarly, about 128(41%) of respondents have favorable behavior toward organ donation. Results from correlation revealed that by having good knowledge does not correlate to either positive attitudes or favorable behavior; however, positive attitudes had shown correlated to favorable behavior toward organ donation. Conclusions: The study revealed that the attitudes and behavior of the respondents toward organ donation are not proportional to the level of knowledge they possess. Therefore, better educational plans on deceased organ donation among students are needed. Also, in order to augment the understanding among the public, the government should put the main issues at targeting public education regarding the quality of life, safety, and risk of donation and transplantation, and improving the public trust on the donation and the surgical methods to perform transplantation.