Evolution of Attitudes of a Romanian Urban Population Regarding Organ Donation

Abstract

The rate of organ donation for transplantation as well as the utilization rate of obtained organs are still low in Romania. We performed a sociological study which aimed to identify the reasons underlying the low organ donation and transplantation rate in Romania and to analyze whether changes in the opinions of the population regarding the donation of organs for transplantation occurred in the period 2012 to 2019. We applied a panel research strategy, data collection being done by means of a questionnaire applied to the same population in two different time periods: 2012 and 2019. Our research showed that during the 7 years period the attitudes of the participants toward organ donation and transplantation have not evolved to a great extent but we observed a process of crystallization of attitudes in 2019. We also observed that a more emphasis is placed by the participants on individual autonomy in decision-making process concerning organ donation and that the highest availability for organ donation is manifested when the life of a family member is at stake. We conclude that there is a need for coherent public information policies in which the main agents would be the doctors, the school and the family.