Leading the Flock: Organ Donation Feelings, Beliefs, and Intentions among African American Clergy and Community Residents

Abstract

Despite a considerable potential role in organ donation for African American clergy, there has been little investigation to date of the beliefs, attitudes, and personal intentions of such clergy regarding donation. To compare the beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions regarding organ donation among African American clergy to those of African American residents of the same large US city. Focus groups and 3 cross-sectional surveys. Greater Houston, Tex, metropolitan area. A total of 761 randomly selected African American community residents and 311 African American clergy. Beliefs about the importance of organ donation; how comfortable one is in thinking about donation; whether one believes that organ donation is against one's religion; trust in healthcare professionals regarding death declaration; concerns that donation leads to body mutilation; and the likelihood that one will donate one's own organs upon death. Compared to general African American residents, African American clergy in the Houston area were found more often to believe in the importance of donation; to be more comfortable with thinking about donation; to feel more certain that donation was not against their religion; to believe that they could trust healthcare professionals regarding death declaration; to feel less often that donation leads to mutilation of the body; and to indicate a greater likelihood of donating their own organs upon death. The same was found to be true among clergy and congregants of the largest religious denomination in Houston, the Baptists.