The Family Attitudes of Patients With End-Stage Renal Disease Toward Living Kidney Donation in China.

Background: Organ shortages limit the progress of organ transplantation. The family attitudes of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) play an important role in advocating organ transplantation and donation. The purpose of this study was to analyze the family attitudes of patients with ESRD toward living kidney donation in China. Ethical approval was obtained from the ethics committee of Linyi People's Hospital. This study was performed in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Materials And Methods: This research was performed at 5 third-level hospitals with hemodialysis and nephrology departments, and a small section comes from urology departments. The participants were surveyed from January to November 2018. Attitudes were evaluated using a validated questionnaire concerning the psychosocial aspects of organ donation. The self-administered questionnaire was completed anonymously. Statistical analyses employed t tests and the χ test.

Results: Regarding living kidney donation, 69.1% (n = 428) of patient families favored it; however, only 30.9% (n = 192) did not support it. A favorable attitude toward living donation was mainly associated with the following variables: 1. the recipient is not more than 50 years old; 2. the recipient is a member of the immediate family; 3. the living donation is from the recipient's family member; 4. the family has previous personal experience with organ transplantation and donation; and 5. the family has a concern about the possibility of needing a transplant within the family unit (P < .05).

Conclusions: Economic burden and mental stress from long-term dialysis influenced the attitudes and behavioral intentions of the families of patients with ESRD on advocating organ donation. Repeated education and constant advocacy are advised to increase the participation of families of patients with ESRD in organ donation. The results showed favorable attitudes toward living kidney donation among the families of patients with ESRD.