A survey of 428 health sciences undergraduates at a university in Ras Al Khaimah found that generally positive attitudes toward organ donation did not translate into high self-reported donor registration. The results point to gaps in students’ knowledge and awareness, as well as concerns about trust and the donation process.
Rasha Aziz Attia Salama and colleagues report the cross-sectional study in PLOS ONE. Students completed an anonymous questionnaire about organ donation knowledge, attitudes and registration. The study matters because health sciences students may later help shape public understanding of donation, but the findings also show that favorable views alone do not establish whether someone has formally registered.
Only 28% of participants said they were registered donors. The average attitude score was 41.58 out of 65, which the authors characterize as generally favorable. Willingness to donate was more commonly reported for family members than for strangers: 77.7% said they were willing to donate to a family member, compared with 43.0% for a stranger. These answers measure different things from registration, and the survey cannot show how individuals’ intentions changed over time.
Knowledge scores averaged 7.77 out of 19. More than half of the students—55.2%—said they were unaware of the UAE’s Hayat national organ donation program. Just under half correctly identified the definition of brain death, and about half knew that donation in the UAE requires prior consent or family approval. The results identify specific areas where students’ understanding was incomplete; they do not show which information gaps caused any individual’s registration decision.
Among students who were not registered, the most frequently reported reason was lack of awareness, cited by 39.0%. Other reported reasons included religious concerns (26.9%), fear of medical or surgical procedures (17.9%), and family refusal (16.2%). Participants also reported concerns about body disfigurement, possible misuse of donated organs, mistrust of the donation system and the possibility of receiving lower-quality medical care after registering. The survey records these concerns, but does not establish that they led to non-registration.
In an adjusted statistical analysis, students in pharmacy, dentistry and nursing had lower odds of reporting registration than medical students. Non-Arab students had lower adjusted odds than Arab students, including Emiratis. Students whose parents had a medical educational background also had lower adjusted odds than those whose parents had a non-medical background. These are associations within this sample, not explanations of why the differences occurred. Knowledge and attitude scores were not significantly associated with registration in the adjusted model.
The authors suggest that education and awareness initiatives could address knowledge gaps, clarify registration procedures and respond to students’ concerns. The study did not test whether any such initiative increases formal registration, so that remains a question for future research.
The results should be interpreted in light of the study design. It captured responses at one point in time, relied on self-reported knowledge and registration, and used consecutive non-probability sampling at a single university. The authors say these features limit causal conclusions and how far the findings can be generalized to students elsewhere in the UAE. <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0362203">Source: PLOS ONE study</a>