The obstacles to organ donation following brain death in Iran: a qualitative study
- PDF / 581,565 Bytes
- 9 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 57 Downloads / 200 Views
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
The obstacles to organ donation following brain death in Iran: a qualitative study Parvin Abbasi1, Javad Yoosefi Lebni2, Paricher Nouri3, Arash Ziapour4 and Amir Jalali5*
Abstract Background: Organ donation following brain death has become an important way of supplying organs for transplantation in many countries. This practice is less common in Iran for different reasons. Therefore, this study aims to explore the obstacles to organ donation following brain death in Iran. Methods: This qualitative research was conducted following the conventional content analysis method. The study population consisted of individuals with a history of brain death among their blood relatives who refused to donate the organs. Snowball sampling was employed to select the participants. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted for data gathering. Theoretical saturation was achieved through 20 interviews. Data analysis was done following the steps proposed by Graneheim and Lundman. Lincoln and Guba’s criteria were used to ensure data rigor and transferability of the study. Results: Data analyses revealed 185 codes, 23 categories, and seven themes including, poor knowledge about brain death and organ transplantation from a dead body, cultural beliefs, religious beliefs, deficiencies of requesting process, fear and concerns, inability to make a decision, and social learning. Conclusion: There were several factors in families’ reluctance to donate organs of a brain-dead patient. Through improving knowledge and changing cultural beliefs in society, it is possible to take large steps towards promoting organ donation from brain-dead patients. Keywords: Brain-death, Organ donation, Obstacles, Qualitative study
Background Brain death happens when all the brain functions are stopped and an irreversible brain damage takes place [1]. Organ donation is an altruistic decision that can be made by the family members after brain death [2]. Although, many organizations and medical centers have implemented various interventions and training courses to increase satisfaction with organ donation [3, 4], a lack of organs for donation still is a serious problem in the world [5]. As a result, thousands of patients on waiting lists for transplantation die every year [6]. * Correspondence: [email protected] 5 Substance Abuse Prevention Research Center, Research Institute for Health, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Iran is one of the countries with a shortage of donated organs [7]. On average, there are 2500–4000 brain deaths per year in Iran which can be candidates for organ donation. However, only 926 families of braindead patients consented to organ donation in 2017. The organ donation rate in Iran is 10.9 per one million and this rate places Iran at the 27th rank in the world [8]. Reluctance to donate organs is affected by several factors like attitudes toward organ donation [9], religious beliefs [10–13], incorrect
Data Loading...
