Voluntariness of donors in organ transplantation: A scale study

Aim: Voluntariness of a person in organ donation is both an ethical and a legal exigency. On the other hand, there have not been any standardized methods for assessing an individual's voluntariness. This thesis aims at development of a scale for the measurement of the voluntariness of donors in organ transplantation. Method: In this methodological and quantitative analysis, the Lawshe method was used. The draft scale was applied to 340 voluntary participants, and the collected data were subjected to factor analyses and reliability analysis. As a result, five sub-dimensions and 28 items long "Voluntariness of Donors inOrgan Transplantation Scale" was developed and administered to 640 voluntary participants. The data was analyzed using appropriate statistical methods. Findings: The structural equation model of the scale is found to be statistically significant (p=0.001). The goodness of fit index of the scale is excellent with RMSEA 0.047; GFI 0.918; AGFI 0.899; CFI 0.948; and χ2 790,229 (p=0.000) values. Of the participants, 224 (35 %) were women and 416 were men (65 %); 374 were married (58.4 %), 359 had children (56.1 %); and 325 (50.8 %) were university graduates. The average score of the women participants, excluding the reservations dimension, was higher than that of the men throughout the scale and in other dimensions. The voluntariness of the participants was affected by their level of education, beliefs, altruism, fear of operation, insecurity, inadequacy of information, and fear of degradation of physical integrity. Results: Women who are more willing to donate organs come to the fore in donations within families. Participants who prioritize patients' right to live make greater altruistic donations within the families. The fact that participants desire to make their own decisions about organ donation demonstrates the necessity of shifting to an autonomous consent system in the consent model. Men want the organ donor to be financially supported. As individuals' understanding of organ donation increases, so does their willingness to volunteer.