Attitude, intention and will expression on post-mortem organ donation in the Italian population

Background: More than 8000 people are waiting for organ transplantation in Italy. Even though most of the population has a positive attitude towards organ donation, the percentage of consent to donation remains low (only 68.2% of the expressions in 2021). Exploring different points of view and variables that might play a role in this process is very important to foster a culture of organ donation and specific policy implementation. Methods: A mixed-method study was conducted in 2021 in collaboration with the National Centre for Transplantation and involved 353 participants (healthcare professionals, citizens, opinion leaders, registry office employees) that completed a questionnaire to assess their attitudes towards organ donation and will expression before and after participating to a focus group on the topic. Statistical analyses were conducted with SPSS. Findings: Results showed that 93.8% of participants reported a positive attitude towards donation, which significantly increased participating in the focus group (p<.001). Only 50.4% of the sample expressed their will at the time of the study. Significant correlations were found between a positive attitude and being a woman (p <.045), higher education (p<.004), familiarity with donation (p<.001); and between having expressed one’s will and familiarity with donation (p <.024) and being registered to donation associations (p<.001). Discussion: Differences in attitude and will expression in each group (especially opinion leaders and registry office employees) underline the need to implement targeted interventions and policies to foster the creation of a culture of donation and to support citizens in expressing their will consciously.