Back
In low- and middle-income countries, kidney transplantation is heavily dependent on a living kidney donor. Previous studies have shown that religion, loss of body part, and cultural values influenced participants’ willingness to donate a kidney. Mistrust in hospitals, concerns about the surgical donation procedure and development of kidney failure after donation, also, negatively affected the willingness to be a living kidney donor.
In the past five years less than five kidney transplants have been performed per year in Jamaica. A paucity of potential living kidney donors has been identified as one of the barriers to kidney transplantation in Jamaica. This study explores possible reasons for this.
The survey was circulated in a Google form via Whats App and on Facebook from August 24th to October 9th, 2023. Uni-variate and bi-variate analyses were performed using Microsoft Excel and appropriate p values were calculated.
Approximately 40% of the participants reported willingness to donate a kidney to a close relative or spouse. Health care professionals and participants working full time were more willing to be living kidney donors. Most common reasons given for not being willing or unsure about kidney donation were need for more education about risks involved, having underlying medical conditions, concern that their remaining kidney will go bad, concern about complications after surgery and reporting that they were too old for surgery. This suggests that more education about kidney transplantation is needed in the Jamaican population.