Development of a Reliable and Valid Organ Tissue Donation and Transplantation Knowledge Scale.

INTRODUCTION: Knowledge has an important role in an individual's willingness to donate organs upon death. Knowledge enables clarification of false beliefs, which can increase willingness to consent to organ donation. The purpose of the study was to describe and examine the validity and reliability of the Organ-Tissue Donation and Transplantation Knowledge Scale (ODTKS). METHODS: We performed a comprehensive literature review and chose 23 items for the scale according to specialists' recommendations. A total of 6 items were excluded from the scale. Finally, the scale consisted of 17 items and 2 subdimensions. RESULTS: The study group consisted of 540 (267 [49.4%] male and 273 [50.6%] female) nonmedical staff members; 23.5% were primary school graduates, 47.6% were high school graduates, and 28.9% had university degrees or higher. The difficulty index and discrimination index of the overall scale were 22.41% to 54.07% and 0.23 to 0.46, respectively. Cronbach α coefficient was 0.88 overall. Retest reliability scores were significant (r = 0.87, P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: The total score of the ODTKS was significantly higher among university graduates compared with primary school graduates and among people willing to donate. The ODTKS therefore has adequate reliability and validity for evaluating Turkish adults' knowledge about organ tissue donation and transplantation.

Effect of anti-smoking advertisements on Turkish adolescents.

The aim of the present study was to determine the perception of 10 anti-smoking advertisements in 1434 Turkish adolescents. We used the Effectiveness of the Anti-smoking Advertisements Scale, which included 6 items for each advertisement; each item was assessed on a 5-point Likert-type scale. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to determine the factors associated with the impact of the advertisements. All the advertisements were more effective for adolescents who had never smoked compared to ex-smokers and current smokers. We also noted that, regardless of age, smoking status decreased the effectiveness of all the advertisements. Previous studies have shown that smokers have a negative attitude towards anti-smoking messages. In the present study, the most effective advertisements among adolescents were those with "Sponge and tar", "Smoking harms in every breath" and "Children want to grow". In conclusion, although anti-smoking campaigns are targeted towards adults, they also have a strong influence on adolescents. The main target population for advertisements should be individuals aged < 15 years who have not yet started smoking.