Abstract
BackgroundA survey on the knowledge and attitudes towards the Austrian organ donation legislation (an opt-out solution) of selected groups of the Austrian population taking into account factors such as age, gender, level of education, affiliation to healthcare professions and health related studies was conducted.MethodsAn online survey among 3 target groups (ICU nurses, health science students and non health science students) was performed and results were compared to the answers from transplantation patients to a paper questionnaire. A total of 8415 persons were asked to participate in the survey and 2025 (24%) persons correctly completed the questionnaire. 1945 online responses (ICU nurses n = 185; students of health sciences n = 1277; students of non-health science related courses n = 483) were analysed and data were compared to 80 manually filled-in responses from patients from a previous study.Results84% of participants state that they know the Austrian organ donation legislation; this percentage varies significantly (p < 0.05) within the target groups and is influenced by demographic variables of the participants. 74% think that the law is good and 79% do not favour a change. Opinions and attitudes towards the legal situation are positively influenced by the affiliation to healthcare professions and health-related fields of study. Interviewed persons who were aware of the legislation before the survey had a more positive attitude towards the existing legislation (77% versus 74%, p < 0.05).ConclusionsThe information level on Austrian organ donation legislation is high. ICU nurses and those who did not know the law before were most critical towards the existing legislation. Therefore education to increase knowledge in the general population and goal-oriented efforts to increase awareness in the target groups should be emphasized.
Highlights
A survey on the knowledge and attitudes towards the Austrian organ donation legislation of selected groups of the Austrian population taking into account factors such as age, gender, level of education, affiliation to healthcare professions and health related studies was conducted
Invitation emails to participate in this survey were sent to the email accounts at university or at work to 3 target groups, to all registered students (n = 3580) at the University of Applied Sciences FH Joanneum in Styria, to all registered students (n = 4166) at the Medical University Graz and to all ICU nurses of all intensive care units at the University Hospital Graz potentially being in charge of organ donors (n = 585)
Demographic data The invitation email was sent to 8331 email addresses and in a separate study 84 patients from the transplantation outpatient clinic were invited to fill in the paper questionnaire on an outpatient basis
Summary
A survey on the knowledge and attitudes towards the Austrian organ donation legislation (an opt-out solution) of selected groups of the Austrian population taking into account factors such as age, gender, level of education, affiliation to healthcare professions and health related studies was conducted. In Austria mortality on the waiting list ranged from 2% (pancreas) to 17% (liver) in 2010 and remains unacceptably high even in a country with high the case of brain death has to declare this whish before death, for example by putting his/her name on the contradiction registry [3]. In some European countries the organ donation legislation is different. They have the so-called “opt-in” solution (see Table 1), where potential organ donors have to put their names into a donor registry or to keep their organ donation cards with them and in case of a missing consent of the deceased person the closest relatives (“ of kin”) are asked for their agreement [4,5]
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