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3.6 Beliefs About Organ and Tissue Donation
A variety of beliefs about organ donation may be related
to granting permission to donate on a driver's license, donor
card, or registry or may be related to the willingness to
do so. Some of these beliefs constitute misinformation that
organ procurement organizations and others attempt to counteract.
Table 8 presents results for several
of these beliefs that constitute either true information or
misinformation about organ donation.
This table provides two types of data — the intensity
of belief and the impact of belief on granting permission
to donate or willingness to donate. Intensity of belief is
indicated by the degree to which people either "strongly
agree" or "strongly disagree" with the belief
statement. Which end of the scale to focus on depends on whether
the statement is true information or misinformation about
donation. For example, one would want the public to "strongly
agree" with the statement, "Most members of your
family support the idea of organ and tissue donation,"
but to "strongly disagree" with the statement, "Organ
transplantation is an experimental medical procedure."
These beliefs could potentially be affected by public education
campaigns to increase organ donation or willingness to donate.
It may be more productive to first address those where a smaller
proportion of the public is at the desired end of the scale,
implying that more people could be moved toward organ donation
by changing their beliefs.
The other type of data in the table is the impact of belief.
This is indicated by the correlation of beliefs with the outcomes
of granting permission to donate or willingness to donate.
The correlation is a statistic that indicates the strength
of relationship and the direction of relationship. The strength
of the relationship can range from 0, implying no relationship,
to 1, implying a perfect relationship. In the table, beliefs
with stronger relationships to granting permission to donate
or willingness to donate are near the top of Table
8 and beliefs with little or no relationship are at the
bottom. A larger correlation means that the more people "strongly
agree" with the belief statement the more likely they
are to grant permission to donate or be willing to donate.
Direction of the relationship is indicated by the negative
sign in front of the number. Negative correlations imply that
as agreement with the statement increases the likelihood of
donation decreases. A positive correlation, one without a
negative sign, indicates that as the agreement with the statement
increases, the likelihood of donation also increases.
A public education campaign intended to move beliefs toward
donation is likely to have a bigger impact if the belief has
a higher correlation. Thus, the best opportunities for improvement
are beliefs that have relatively low intensity, but high potential
for impact. Public education that moves a large number of
people on a belief that is highly correlated with donation
has the best opportunity to have an impact on donation.
One way to identify potential beliefs to be addressed is
to identify the beliefs that tend to be below average in intensity
of belief and above average in potential impact. With regard
to increasing people's willingness to donate, the data indicate
that the following beliefs have the greatest potential:
- Most members of your family support the idea of organ
and tissue donation
- It is important for a person's body to have all of its
parts when it is buried
- Organ and tissue donation helps families cope with their
grief
- Given equal need, a poor person has as good a chance as
a rich person of getting an organ transplant
- Organ and tissue donation can often transmit diseases,
such as HIV, hepatitis, or West Nile virus
Increasing agreement with first, third, and fourth beliefs
in the above list, or decreasing agreement with the others,
is likely to have the greatest overall effect on willingness
to donate.
With regard to increasing the likelihood of granting permission
to donate on a driver's license, donor card, or registry,
a campaign focusing on the following beliefs may have the
greatest potential:
- Most members of your family support the idea of organ
and tissue donation
- Organ and tissue donation can often transmit diseases,
such as HIV, hepatitis, or West Nile virus
- People who choose to donate a family member's organs end
up paying extra medical bills
- It is important for a person's body to have all of its
parts when it is buried
- Organ and tissue donation helps families cope with their
grief
Increasing agreement with the first and last beliefs in the
above list, or decreasing agreement with the others, is likely
to have the greatest overall effect on willingness to donate.
It should be noted, however, that these are attitudinal drivers
or barriers to donation that might be addressed by public
education. A complete approach also will identify and address
institutional and organizational barriers to donation.
Table
8. Beliefs About Donation and Correlations With Donation and
Willingness to Donate
| |
Percentage Responding
|
Correlation With
|
|
Question
|
Strongly
Disagree
|
Somewhat
Disagree
|
Somewhat
Agree
|
Strongly
Agree
|
Granted
Permission
|
Willing to
Donate
|
| Most members of
your family support the idea of organ and tissue donation
|
6.9
|
11.5
|
37.2
|
44.3
|
0.411
|
0.333
|
| It is important
for a person's body to have all of its parts when it is
buried |
56.9
|
23.7
|
9.7
|
9.7
|
-0.335
|
-0.326
|
| Organ donation allows
something positive to come out of a person's death |
2.2
|
1.9
|
17.8
|
78.1
|
0.341
|
0.175
|
| You are worried
that a loved one's body would be disfigured if his or
her organs were donated |
61.3
|
22.1
|
8.9
|
7.7
|
-0.298
|
-0.225
|
| People your age
are too old to donate organs |
74.2
|
13.3
|
7.1
|
5.4
|
-0.301
|
-0.150
|
| Organ and tissue
donation is against your religion |
82.9
|
10.5
|
3.3
|
3.3
|
-0.251
|
-0.149
|
| Most people who
receive transplants gain additional years of healthy life |
1.2
|
3.1
|
27.5
|
68.3
|
0.272
|
0.178
|
| Organ and tissue
donation helps families cope with their grief |
6.0
|
10.9
|
49.3
|
33.8
|
0.214
|
0.205
|
| If you indicate
you intend to be a donor, doctors will be less likely
to try to save your life |
61.0
|
23.1
|
8.6
|
7.3
|
-0.303
|
-0.113
|
| People who choose
to donate a family member's organs end up paying extra
medical bills |
48.4
|
33.0
|
12.4
|
6.2
|
-0.285
|
-0.107
|
| People your age
are too old to receive transplants |
76.0
|
14.7
|
4.6
|
4.7
|
-0.213
|
-0.177
|
| Organ transplantation
is an experimental medical procedure |
58.6
|
18.8
|
14.5
|
8.2
|
-0.205
|
-0.168
|
| Doctors will do
everything they can to save a person's life before organ
donation is even considered |
3.2
|
4.0
|
21.2
|
71.6
|
0.196
|
0.103
|
| Organ and tissue
donation can often transmit diseases, such as HIV, hepatitis,
or West Nile virus |
24.1
|
23.6
|
31.1
|
21.2
|
-0.226
|
-0.118
|
| It is important
for people to tell their families whether or not they
would want their organs to be donated upon death |
1.7
|
1.2
|
15.0
|
82.1
|
0.200
|
0.075
|
| Every year, thousands
of people die due to a lack of donated organs for transplantation |
3.0
|
4.4
|
26.8
|
65.8
|
0.226
|
-0.103
|
| It is possible for
a brain -dead person to recover from his or her injuries
|
48.7
|
18.4
|
20.9
|
12.0
|
-0.169
|
-0.102
|
| Transplants often
go to undeserving people |
52.3
|
26.6
|
15.2
|
5.8
|
-0.127
|
-0.116
|
| A person's wish
to donate his or her organs should be honored under all
circumstances |
2.6
|
6.5
|
22.7
|
68.1
|
0.154
|
0.009
|
| Discrimination prevents
minority patients from receiving the organ transplants
they need |
10.1
|
21.0
|
28.4
|
40.4
|
-0.147
|
-0.036
|
| It is impossible
to have a regular funeral service following organ and
tissue donation |
78.0
|
11.7
|
5.3
|
5.0
|
-0.100
|
-0.005
|
| All people who need
an organ transplant receive a transplant |
63.6
|
19.1
|
7.8
|
9.4
|
-0.067
|
-0.102
|
| There should be
a registry of people who wish to be organ donors that
can be accessed at the time of a person's death to make
sure his or her wishes are known |
2.2
|
3.2
|
19.7
|
74.9
|
0.130
|
0.019
|
| Given equal need,
a poor person has as good a chance as a rich person of
getting an organ transplant |
23.8
|
28.8
|
20.5
|
27.0
|
-0.012
|
0.126
|
| A deceased person's
next of kin should be able to override the deceased person's
wish to donate his or her organs |
60.8
|
18.3
|
12.7
|
8.2
|
-0.018
|
0.072
|
Some
of the items used in the survey questionnaire for this study
are proprietary content owned by The Gallup Organization.
A complete list is found on the Copyright
page. Copyright © 1993, 2005 The Gallup Organization,
Washington, D.C. All rights reserved.
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