Investigation and Strategic Analysis of Public Willingness and Attitudes Toward Organ Donation in East China

•Organ donation has recently been introduced in China and is fraught with difficulties.•We investigate the willingness and attitude of the general public in East China.•The factors that affect Chinese organ donation are analyzed.•We propose specific recommendations for promoting organ donation.

BackgroundChina officially initiated deceased organ donation in 2010. Much progress has been made since then. However, compared with the developed countries in Europe and America, there is still a large gap. In this study, we investigate the willingness and attitude of the general public in East China and the factors that affect organ donation, and propose specific recommendations for promoting it.MethodsA simple and random sample was questioned. The data were analyzed statistically using SPSS 19.0 software, χ2 test, and logistic regression.ResultsA total of 1200 questionnaires were issued; of these, 1105 were recovered, with 1074 effective questionnaires, for an effective rate of 89.5%. Among these, 426 respondents (39.7%) were willing to donate, 529 (49.3%) were in favor of donation but would not donate themselves; and 119 (11.1%) were against donation. Women (P < .01), persons with higher education (P < .01), those who understand organ donation (P < .01), and those who accept the concept of brain death (P < .01) had higher degrees of acceptance for organ donation. Reasons to hinder organ donation included imperfect laws and regulations, distrust on organ allocation, and insufficient promotion by relevant organizations.ConclusionMuch needs to be done to promote organ donation in China; targeted publicity will help to improve the work efficiency of organ donation; improvement of relevant policies and regulations, and establishment of a fair and transparent organ allocation system are key to the development of organ donation.