Exploring the knowledge levels, attitudes and beliefs towards organ donation among patients' relatives in the intensive care units of two major hospitals in Trinidad

ABSTRACT

Objective: To ascertain the knowledge levels, attitudes and beliefs towards organ donation by relatives of patients in the Intensive Care Unit at two tertiary care hospitals in Trinidad. Design and Methodology: A descriptive study in which researchers'-designed and pretested self-administered questionnaire was used on a sample of 133 randomly selected patients' relatives from two main intensive care hospital units in Trinidad. The respondents were requested to give their consent after necessary ethical approval was received. Data entry was done manually but the analysis was done with the SPSS version 12 programme. Results were presented as frequencies. Results: Demographic characteristics indicated that most were females, of African ethnicity, and Christianity as their main religion. The majority of participants had a high level of knowledge (69.2%) while 57.9% of them had unfavourable attitude towards organ donation. Most (86.5%) had positive belief. It also showed that the respondents' knowledge towards organ donation is significantly related to their age and religion, (P≤, 0.05) while their attitudes are significantly related to their gender and ethnicity (p≤0.05). Their belief was only significantly associated with their marital status. Conclusion: The study has shown that although patients' relatives in Trinidad have general knowledge of organ donation, as well positive belief towards the practice, their attitudes are mostly unfavourable. We believe that their attitude more than their knowledge and beliefs account more for their actions towards organ donation.