Background of the Study

1. Background of the Study Level of Awareness regarding Organ Donation among UTM Students According to the World Health Organisation Regional Office (2010), transplantation activities in Malaysia started in 1975 with kidney transplants and include heart, lung, and liver transplantation. Organ donation in Malaysia is regulated by the Human Tissue Act (1974) and the National Organ & Tissue Transplant Policy (2007). From the study done by Hong Kong Journal of Emergency Medicine (2010), the awareness of organ donation in Malaysia is still low. The reasons for reluctance to donate include fear of organs being used for research (18.8%), desire to be buried whole (18%), fear of less active treatment if patients is known to be a donor (12.8%), believe in one’s sanctity is violated (11.8%), fear of being cut up alive or having pain after death (10.8%), and believe in one’s religion is violated (8.4%). Besides, it seems that lack of donors is one of the major factors affecting organ transplantation in Malaysia. According to data from National Transplant Resource Center (NTRC) website (2009) there were only 294 cases of successful organ donation from 1997 to June 2010. Two hundred and fifteen (73.1%) of them are male donor while 68 (23.1%) are female and the remaining is unknown. In addition, the number of pledged organ donors in Malaysia, increases from 2556 persons in 1997 to 15554 in 2009. Although both successful organ donation cases and number of pledged organ donors show positive increment, the supply of organs still cannot fulfill the demand of organ in Malaysia. According to the NTRC website, currently there are more than 10000 people nationwide on the kidney transplant waiting list and some have been waiting for up to five years to find a suitable donor. Besides kidney, there are also seven patients waiting for hearts and four patients nationwide need lung transplant. It is obvious that there is still a significant shortfall in organs available for transplant.

2. Statement of Problem Level of Awareness regarding Organ Donation among UTM Students According to The International Registry of Organ Donation and Transplantation (IRODaT) (2010), the rate of organ donation in Malaysia is 1.4 organ donor per million of population. It is relatively low if compared to Spain which has the rate of organ donation of 34.4 organ donor per million people. Besides that, Loch, Hilim, Mazam, Pillay, and Choon (2010) found out that the level of awareness regarding organ donation among Malaysian is still low. Most of them do not know about organ donation. The number of registered organ donor is even less. Being that the population of UniversitiTeknologi Malaysia (UTM) are Malaysians, it can be concluded that the level of awareness among UTM students is also low. Ideally, every Malaysian should pledge as an organ donor although it seems unlikely to happen. According to the NTRC website, due to the shortage of organ donor, currently there are more than 10000 people nationwide on the kidney transplant waiting list and some have been waiting for up to five years to find a suitable donor. Besides kidney, there are also seven patients awaiting hearts and 12 patients nationwide need lung transplant. There are efforts that can be done to increase the awareness of UTM students regarding organ donation and at the same time encourage them to register as an organ donor. The factors that prevent UTM students from registering as an organ donor should be identified in order to increase the level of awareness among UTM students.

3. Objectives of the Study Level of Awareness regarding Organ Donation among UTM Students The objectives of this study are to: • determine the level of awareness and willingness regarding organ donation among UTM students. • determine the factors that prevent UTM students from becoming an organ donor. • determine the effective ways to increase understanding towards organ donation among UTM students.

4. Research Questions Level of Awareness regarding Organ Donation among UTM Students The research questions of this study are: • How is UTM students’ level of awareness towards organ donation? • What are the factors that prevent UTM students from becoming an organ donor? • What are the methods to increase the level of awareness of organ donation among UTM students?

5. Significance of Study Level of Awareness regarding Organ Donation among UTM Students The findings of this study will create high awareness among UTM students on the issue of organ donation. At the same time it will encourage them to register as an organ donor. Before that, due to lack of exposure to the issue of organ donation, UTM students may have some doubt and wrong perception about organ donation. Through this research, the factors that prevent UTM students from donating their organ can be used as the reference for the authority such as the Ministry of Health to decide their direction of organ donation campaign.

6. Scope of the Study Level of Awareness regarding Organ Donation among UTM Students • The students of UTM will be selected randomly to answer the questionnaires. The type of sampling that will be used is stratified random sampling. One hundred sets of questionnaires will be distributed to UTM students. The causes and effects of the low number of registered organ donor in UTM will be identified. Moreover, the effective ways to encourage UTM students to register as organ donor are to be determined too.