Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #113084

Jason T. Siegel, PhD¹, Eusebio M. Alvaro, PhD, MPH¹, Sara Pace Jones, BA², and William D. Crano, PhD¹. (1) Psychology Department, Claremont Graduate University, 2424 E. Broadway, Suite 200, Tucson, AZ 85719, 520-620-0641, Jason.Siegel@cgu.edu, (2) Donor Network of Arizona, 201 W. Coolidge St., Phoenix, AZ 85013

Intro While over 80% of the American population is in favor of organ donation only a small percentage of these individuals have registered to be an organ donor. Non-registered individuals with favorable attitudes towards organ donation will be called passive-positives. Methods Six focus groups (n = 42) were conducted with passive positives in Tucson, AZ and Phoenix, AZ to explore why passive positives are not registered organ donors. Participants were also asked to fill out short surveys before and after the focus group. All participants were favorable towards organ donation but were not registered to be donors. Results Many participants were interested becoming donors, but had one or two questions or concerns. Some participants had not signed up due to not knowing whether they were eligible; some were unsure of the actual procedure. Not surprisingly, the participants asked the focus group moderators a barrage of questions. As questions were answered, more participants became willing to register to be a donor. The administered survey revealed, 40.5% of respondents responded that if they could sign up to be a donor “right now” they would. Many others stated they would sign-up but wanted to talk to their family first. Implications The majority of Americans are in favor of organ donation. Limited barriers seem to be keeping at least a portion of these individuals from registering. Future intervention efforts may want to focus on getting passive positives to sign-up rather than focusing on convincing the public that organ donation is a good thing.

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