Attitude and Willingness towards Tissue Donation in

Background: Tissue donation has been promising in prolonging the lives of people with life-threateningdiseases.Objective: To assess the attitude and willingness of high school students towards bone marrow (BM) andblood (as tissue) donation for maintaining a safe and adequate pool.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among the high school girls, aged 15–18 years, whostudied in natural sciences, mathematics and humanities. All participants filled a questionnaire consistingof age, religion, education levels and study branch, attitude and willingness towards BM and blooddonation according to a Likert scale.Results: Out of 416 students, with the mean±SD age of 16.3±1.2 years, 31% studied in grade I, 27% ingrade II (25% natural sciences, 27% mathematics, and 48% humanities), 26% in grade III (30% naturalsciences, 34% mathematics, and 36% humanities), and 16% in pre-university level (college) (32% naturalsciences, 42% mathematics, and 6% humanities). The students had highly positive attitudes towardBM and blood donation (mean±SD score of 4.2±0.54). The willingness for BM and blood donation wasdeclared respectively, in 87% and 71% of respondents. Moreover, 16% of students wanted to donate onlyto their relatives and 84% to all persons in need of therapy. There was no significant correlation betweenthe donation willingness and educational levels and study branch; however, these variables significantlycorrelated with attitude towards tissue donation (p=0.02, p=0.01, respectively).Conclusion: Despite positive attitude towards BM and blood donation, willingness for BM donation is lesserthan blood which may be attributed to insufficient information about this type of tissue donation. An organizededucational program for high school students in all aspects of tissue donation seems necessary.