Multicentric Study to Evaluate Mexican Medical Students' Knowledge of Transplants and Organ Donation

Abstract

Introduction: Transplants and organ donation are greatly aided by future medical professionals having adequate knowledge of this topic. This study aimed to elucidate the level of Mexican medical students' knowledge in the field of transplants and organ donation.

Materials and methods: The evaluation instrument was designed and validated. The design used simple sampling with replacement, selecting a random sample of 5 universities from among the institutional members of the Mexican Association of Departments and Schools of Medicine (Asociación Mexicana de Facultades y Escuelas de Medicina [AMFEM]). The sample was composed of 3214 medical students. Measures of central tendency were determined, and the mean scores obtained across the different universities were compared using a Kruskal-Wallis test. The odds ratio was calculated for the students whose school or department included instruction on transplants and donation within their curriculum. Kendall correlation was used for the students' academic grade level and score. All analyses considered a threshold of P < .05.

Results: A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 2563 students to evaluate their knowledge of transplants and organ donation. The average score was 4.02 on a scale of 0 to 10 (standard deviation 0.03), with a 95% confidence interval (3.96-4.08). Students whose school or department taught the subject of transplants and donations within their curriculum obtained an odds ratio of 1.44 (P = .0000822).

Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that medical students in Mexico do not have sufficient knowledge of transplants and organ donation.