Awareness and attitude on kidney organ donation and transplant among Healthcare professionals and caregivers at Kenyatta National Hospital

Abstract

Introduction to the Study Kidney transplant is now the preferred renal replacement therapy in patients with end-stage renal disease. Most transplant programs worldwide are plagued with organ shortages. Awareness and attitude of healthcare professionals and the general public have been demonstrated severally to influence organ donation and transplant rates. Objectives To determine the level of awareness and attitude on kidney organ donation and transplant among caregivers and healthcare professionals at Kenyatta national hospital. Methods and materials This was a hospital based cross-sectional study that was conducted at Kenyatta national hospital in Kenya. The tools for the study comprised of a closed ended questionnaire that assessed attitude and awareness on a 5-point likert scale and in-depth interviews of key informants Results 368 participants comprising of 245 caregivers and 128 healthcare professionals took part in the study. Amoung caregivers, 86% were aware that a living person can donate a kidney to a patient, 23% were aware that a patient can be transplanted with a kidney harvested from a deceased donor, 72% were willing to donate a kidney to a relative, 27% were willing to donate a kidney to a non-relative and only 21% were aware that a patient could be transplanted with a cadaveric kidney. Amoung healthcare professionals, 89% were willing to donate a kidney to a relative, 47% were willing to do the same to a non-relative, 95% were willing to accept a kidney from a living donor but only 12% were willing to accept a cadaveric kidney for transplant. 35% of caregivers and 48% of healthcare professionals were willing to sign up will to be deceased donors. The most common reasons against being a live donor and signing up will to be a deceased donor were concerns of health status post donation and definition of death by healthcare professionals respectively. The most favoured factor that can make it easy for people to be living donors was for the enhancement of knowldedge publicly on kidney organ donation and transplant