Abstract

Background: Organ donation to date remains a sensitive issue among the general public and medical community. In both group’s lack of awareness persists despite the significance of organ shortage faced by the health care system. The constant demand for organs must be dealt by increasing the donor pool by generating a positive attitude of public towards donation while curbing illegal activities by stricter laws. This can be brought about by Medical professionals whose opinion makes a significant impact on the prospective belief of public.
Objective: To explore the knowledge and attitude regarding organ donation among undergraduate medical students and to assess the change in variables post intervention.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional interventional study was conducted among 382 medical students. Data was collected pre and post intervention using a pre-validated self-administered questionnaire, in a lecture hall setting.
Results: Knowledge regarding organ donation practices was poor but showed good improvement post intervention. Only 3.93% students possessed donor card, but more than 60% were willing for donation in future with preference to deceased donation, though only 37.96% were willing to receive organs; and 48.63% showed distrust against doctors and majority agreed that religion was not against organ donation. Media was stated as the most popular source of information and poor knowledge was claimed to be the major reason for unpopularity. Conclusion: Intervention does improve knowledge; however positive change in attitude will require a different approach. Appropriate changes in the curriculum are thus indicated to generate well-informed physicians with an optimistic outlook to change the organ donation scenario.