Knowledge, Attitudes, and Willingness Toward Organ Donation Among Health Professionals in China.

Background: The purposes of this study were to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and willingness toward organ donation among the health professionals in China.

Methods: Questionnaires were delivered to 400 health professionals from 7 hospitals in Dalian and 1 hospital in Chaozhou of China between October 2013 and January 2014.

Results: In all, 400 health professionals were approached, 373 valid responses were returned. Over 90% of the participants knew about organ donation, but only 17.4% had taken part in some training courses or lectures about organ donation. Health professionals (64.9%) knew the shortage status of organ, and doctors knew more than nurses and nonclinical staffs (P < 0.01). Health professionals (97.3%) knew brain death, and 68.9% professionals thought brain death was the reasonable criteria to judge death. Doctors showed a higher knowledge level about brain death than nurses and nonclinical staffs (P < 0.01). Altogether, 60.1% approved deceased donation; however, only 48.5% approved living donation. Doctors' attitudes were more positive than nurses and nonclinical both in deceased donation (P < 0.01) and in living donation (P < 0.05). In all, 49.3% were willing to donate their own organs postmortem, and doctors had higher willingness to donation postmortem compared with nurses and nonclinical staffs (P < 0.01). The most (49.2%) commonly cited reason for refraining from donation was: "afraid that organs would be picked up inhumanely and body would be disfigured".

Conclusions: Health professionals showed lower favorable attitudes and willingness toward organ donation than Chinese general public. A proportion of Chinese health professionals' knowledge about organ donation was limited.