Level of Awareness regarding
Organ Donation among UTM
Students
Background of the Study
According to the World Health Organisation Regional Office (2010), transplantation activities
in Malaysia started in 1975 with kidney transplants and include heart, lung, and liver
transplantation. Organ donation in Malaysia is regulated by the Human Tissue Act (1974) and
the National Organ & Tissue Transplant Policy (2007).
From the study done by Hong Kong Journal of Emergency Medicine (2010), the awareness of
organ donation in Malaysia is still low. The reasons for reluctance to donate include fear of
organs being used for research (18.8%), desire to be buried whole (18%), fear of less active
treatment if patients is known to be a donor (12.8%), believe in one’s sanctity is violated
(11.8%), fear of being cut up alive or having pain after death (10.8%), and believe in one’s
religion is violated (8.4%).
Besides, it seems that lack of donors is one of the major factors affecting organ
transplantation in Malaysia. According to data from National Transplant Resource Center
(NTRC) website (2009) there were only 294 cases of successful organ donation from 1997 to
June 2010. Two hundred and fifteen (73.1%) of them are male donor while 68 (23.1%) are
female and the remaining is unknown. In addition, the number of pledged organ donors in
Malaysia, increases from 2556 persons in 1997 to 15554 in 2009. Although both successful
organ donation cases and number of pledged organ donors show positive increment, the supply
of organs still cannot fulfill the demand of organ in Malaysia.
According to the NTRC website, currently there are more than 10000 people nationwide on
the kidney transplant waiting list and some have been waiting for up to five years to find a
suitable donor. Besides kidney, there are also seven patients waiting for hearts and four
patients nationwide need lung transplant. It is obvious that there is still a significant shortfall
in organs available for transplant.
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Level of Awareness regarding
Organ Donation among UTM
Students
Statement of Problem
According to The International Registry of Organ Donation and Transplantation
(IRODaT) (2010), the rate of organ donation in Malaysia is 1.4 organ donor per
million of population. It is relatively low if compared to Spain which has the rate
of organ donation of 34.4 organ donor per million people. Besides that, Loch,
Hilim, Mazam, Pillay, and Choon (2010) found out that the level of awareness
regarding organ donation among Malaysian is still low. Most of them do not know
about organ donation. The number of registered organ donor is even less. Being
that the population of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) are Malaysians, it can
be concluded that the level of awareness among UTM students is also low.
Ideally, every Malaysian should pledge as an organ donor although it seems
unlikely to happen. According to the NTRC website, due to the shortage of organ
donor, currently there are more than 10000 people nationwide on the kidney
transplant waiting list and some have been waiting for up to five years to find a
suitable donor. Besides kidney, there are also seven patients awaiting hearts and
12 patients nationwide need lung transplant.
There are efforts that can be done to increase the awareness of UTM students
regarding organ donation and at the same time encourage them to register as an
organ donor. The factors that prevent UTM students from registering as an organ
donor should be identified in order to increase the level of awareness among UTM
students.
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Level of Awareness regarding
Organ Donation among UTM
Students
Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this study are to:
• determine the level of awareness and willingness regarding organ donation
among UTM students.
• determine the factors that prevent UTM students from becoming an organ
donor.
• determine the effective ways to increase understanding towards organ
donation among UTM students.
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Level of Awareness regarding
Organ Donation among UTM
Students
Research Questions
The research questions of this study are:
• How is UTM students’ level of awareness towards organ donation?
• What are the factors that prevent UTM students from becoming an organ
donor?
• What are the methods to increase the level of awareness of organ donation
among UTM students?
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Level of Awareness regarding
Organ Donation among UTM
Students
Significance of Study
The findings of this study will create high awareness among UTM students on the
issue of organ donation. At the same time it will encourage them to register as an
organ donor. Before that, due to lack of exposure to the issue of organ donation,
UTM students may have some doubt and wrong perception about organ donation.
Through this research, the factors that prevent UTM students from donating their
organ can be used as the reference for the authority such as the Ministry of Health
to decide their direction of organ donation campaign.
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Scope of the Study
Level of Awareness regarding
Organ Donation among UTM
Students
•
The students of UTM will be selected randomly to answer the questionnaires.
The type of sampling that will be used is stratified random sampling. One
hundred sets of questionnaires will be distributed to UTM students. The causes
and effects of the low number of registered organ donor in UTM will be
identified. Moreover, the effective ways to encourage UTM students to
register as organ donor are to be determined too.
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