Teenagers' point of view on living donor kidney transplantation: Cinderella or princess?

Unlabelled: Living kidney donation is an important clinical option, encountering different fortunes in the world.

Aim: To analyse the opinions of a large subset of older teenagers attending high school (7999 students, median age 18) on different aspects of living kidney transplantation.

Methods: Analysis of semistructured questionnaires submitted within an educational campaign on dialysis and transplantation in the high schools of Torino and its county (about 2,000,000 inhabitants).

Results: Over 90% of the students had already heard of transplantation, mainly via television (88.4% county, 84.5% city). 80% would donate a kidney to a family member (3.5% wouldn't, 16.5% uncertain); answers were correlated with sex (females more than males p<0.0001), school type (istituti tecnici versus licei p=0.007), interest (yes versus other p<0.0001). A lower percent of individuals would receive a kidney (58.4% county, 59.4% city), only 10% would ask for donation. Over 40% of students consider legally buying a kidney a patient's right, only 26.6% would discourage this choice. The answers were correlated with the reverse pattern as for non-mercenary donation with type of school (licei more than istituti tecnici: p<0.0001), sex (males versus females p<0.0001), interest (not versus yes: p=0.002).

Conclusions: Teenagers are favourable towards all forms of living kidney donation. The lower prevalence of positive answers on acceptance versus donation suggests that fears of endangering the donor's health may be one of the causes for a low living donation rate in our setting. The mixed answers on mercenary donation suggest discussing this complex issue in future educational programs.