Abstract

Background: Transplantation services in India are constrained less by surgical capacity than by the scarcity of donors, and undergraduate students represent both a prospective donor pool and a channel through which awareness reaches the wider community. Stem cell donation has attracted considerably less scrutiny than solid organ donation in this population. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered to 640 undergraduates, comprising 328 enrolled in health sciences and 312 in non-health disciplines. A pretested instrument recorded awareness items, a fifteen-item knowledge score, attitudes, practices, reasons for unwillingness and sources of information. Determinants of willingness were examined by multivariable logistic regression. Results: Awareness of organ donation reached 87.5% but awareness of stem cell donation only 52.3%, and brain death was correctly defined by 31.4%. Health sciences students scored substantially higher on the knowledge scale. Although 90.2% believed donation should be promoted and 59.8% expressed willingness to donate, only 13.4% had discussed the matter with family and 6.9% were registered. Adequate knowledge, previous blood donation and prior family discussion independently predicted willingness. Conclusion: Awareness is widespread but shallow, and intention rarely translates into registration, indicating that curricular instruction and structured registration pathways are both clearly required. 

Keywords: Organ donation, Stem cell donation, Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, Awareness, Undergraduate students