Who Donates Their Bodies to Science? Analysis of Mississippi's Donor Pool Demographics

Abstract

Whole body donation is important to science and education because dissection of human cadavers provides an interactive anatomical tool for healthcare education, research, and training. Literature suggests that whole body donation does not keep up with the increasing demand of donors of medical centers. Because Mississippi has a high number of preregistered donors, investigation of our donor configuration could assist other states and programs in the recruitment of prospective donors. However, current research is limited about the characteristics of prospective donors. It is critical to ensure an adequate number of donors who bequeath their bodies in order to support the healthcare mission. This study aimed to investigate the demographics of donors who have donated their bodies within the state of Mississippi. The demographics examined by descriptive statistics were: gender, ethnicity, age, educations status, occupation, marital status, geographic location, year of body donation preregistration, and if the donors wanted their cremated remains returned. Data for this study pertained to those individuals who donated their bodies during the years 1986, 1987, 1996, 1997, 2016, and 2017. The donors (N=788) within the past 3 decades were white (85.53%), males (52.79%) with a mean age range of 70–75 years (20.05%) with other demographic data being more variable across decades. Further analysis will aim to compare the demographics across the decades to determine potential changes. Results of this study may contribute to the efficiency of donor recruitment to continue healthcare education, research, and training.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.