Organ Donation Attitudes of Hispanic College Students in the Rio Grande Valley.

Abstract

Purpose: To understand barriers in registering as an organ donor amongst students at a predominantly Hispanic institution. Methods: After obtaining IRB approval, self-identified adult (ages 18 and above) Hispanic students were recruited. Participants were verbally consented, and then given a confidential 32-question survey (derived from two previously published articles) that was comprised of a free response section, current donor status and six domains as follows: a) fears and concerns about organ donation, b) altruism and benefits of donation, c) discomforts or worries about registry and organ procurement, d) awareness about the process of signing up as a donor, e) social support issues, and f) the acknowledgement of the need to donate. SPSS software was used to conduct exploratory factor analysis and logistic regression analysis. Results: A total of 497 surveys were conducted, with 301 meeting the inclusion criteria for analysis. The demographics were: males 116 (38.5%), 185 females (61.5%), average age of 22±4 years. The model that included age, gender, and all six domains was significant and predicted 78.7% of students' donor status correctly (area under the ROC curve = 0.807). The study showed students who acknowledged the need to donate (domain (f)) were less likely (OR=0.409) to be a donor, given other factors were kept the same. If the student's average score was increased one unit on the domain of awareness (d), then the student was more likely (OR=5.423) to be a donor. If the student's average score on the domains of fear (a) and worry (c) related items was respectively increased one unit, then the student was less likely to be a donor (OR=0.263 and 0.595 respectively). There was no significance related to age, gender, and the domains of benefits of donation (b), and social support (e) on donor status. Conclusions: The study indicated a lack of gender related differences on organ donation status for this population. Even though the subjects acknowledged the need to donate, they were less likely to be donors. However, increasing awareness about organ donation registration, and alleviating fears and worries may counter this attitude, thereby increasing the number of registered donors from this population.