Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and willingness towards body and cadaveric organ donation and their associated factors among health care professionals working in jimma university medical centre: an institution based cross-sectional study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In the history of medical science, cadavers were a precious resource for both teaching and researching human anatomy and cadaver dissection has been an integral part of anatomy teaching in medical schools around the world. Till date, the importance of student- cadaver encounter remains paramount. However, anatomical institutes in Ethiopia frequently report a gap between supply of bodies for dissection and demand. In order to continue the invaluable educational experience of cadaver dissection, there must be research on the ways of obtaining this precious anatomy education resource. OBJECTIVES: To investigate knowledge, attitude and willingness to body and cadaveric organ donation and their associated factors among health care professionals working at Jimma University Medical Centre (JUMC). METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among healthcare professionals working in JUMC. The study participants were selected using systematic sampling method. The data were collected by using structured questionnaires and entered to Epi-Data version 3.1 and were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Descriptive statistics, chi square, and logistic regression analysis were used for analysis and statistical significance was declared at p< 0.05. RESULTS: A total of 296 healthcare professionals were included into the study out of whom 153 (51.7%) were male and 143 (48.3%) were female. The age of the respondents ranged from 21 to 60 years, with a mean age of 28.03±4.56 years.. One hundred ninety one (64.5%) of the participants had adequate knowledge about body donation whereas about 233 (78.7%) had adequate knowledge about cadaveric organ donation. Similarly, 138 (46.6%), and 164 (55.4%) of the professionals had good attitude towards body and cadaveric organ donation, respectively. Of the total respondents who showed good attitude towards body donation, about half encourage it to be done in Ethiopia. The willingness to donate body was 63 (21.3%) and the willingness to donate cadaveric organs was 117 (39.5%). The major factors that influence knowledge, attitude, and willingness of health care professionals towards body and cadaveric organ donation are sex, level of education, category of education, year of service, ethnicity and marital status. CONCLUSION: Healthcare professionals working at JUMC are well aware of body and cadaveric organ donation although their attitude and willingness to donate are not as good as their knowledge. Factors such as sex, level of education, category of education, year of service, ethnicity and marital status affect the knowledge, attitude, and willingness to donate body and cadaveric organ.