Psychometric Validation of Questionnaire on Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Organ Donation and Transplantation (Donors Preliminary Study)

Introduction: Organ donation is a highly complex issue. The purpose of our study was to validate 2 questionnaires to explore public knowledge, opinions, and attitudes regarding organ donation and transplantation. Study focused on 2 distinct forms of donation—postmortem organ donation and living donation—through the creation of 2 structured instruments targeting the respective domains. Methods: The construction process relied on a thorough review of existing literature, along with the adaptation of validated instruments. The first questionnaire, targeting the postmortem organ donation, includes a total of 29 items. The living organ donation questionnaire contains 13 items. Participants were selected using a mixed recruitment strategy aimed at capturing a broad and diverse representation of young people older than 18 years, residing in the province of L'Aquila, who provided informed consent. To assess the dimensionality of the questionnaire, we performed an exploratory graph analysis (EGA), and the final model was evaluated through Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Results: A total of 816 young adults participated in the study. The final postmortem organ donation questionnaire consists of 28 items divided into 4 subscales: family influence; social, cultural, and religious factors; healthcare trust; pro-social and moral values. The final version of living organ donation questionnaire consists of 8 items divided into 3 subscales: fear and concern; personal and moral values; communication and openness. Conclusion: The future objective of our research is to implement psycho-educational Interventions aimed at raising awareness and education based on the dimensions identified by our questionnaire.