Background: The knowledge and acceptance of the concept of brain death (BD) among health care personnel is fundamental.
Objective: To analyze the level of understanding of the BD concept among personnel in Spanish and Latin American healthcare centers and to determine the factors affecting this attitude.
Material and methods: Data from 12 hospitals and 32 primary care centers in 4 countries within the International Collaborative Donor Project were selected (Spain, Mexico, Cuba and Costa Rica (n=4378)).
Results: 62% of the personnel (n=2714) understood BD and believed that this was the death of an individual. Of the rest, 30% (n=1333) did not understand it and the remaining 8% (n=331) believed it did not mean the death of a patient. 83% (n=931) of physicians understood BD, compared to 75% (n=895) of nurses, 55% (n=299) of healthcare assistants, 53% (n=108) of non-healthcare university-educated personnel and 36% (n=481) of those without a university education (p<0.001). 68% (n=1084) of Mexicans understood BD compared to 66% (n=134) of Cubans, 58% (n=1411) of Spaniards, and 52% (n=85) (p<0.001) of Costa Ricans. There were significant relationships between knowledge of the concept and the following: type of healthcare center (p<0.001), clinical service (p<0.001), having spoken about organ donation within the family (p<0.001) and one's partner's attitude to the subject (p<0.001). A direct relationship has been found between understanding the concept and attitude toward deceased donation (p<0.001).
Conclusions: The understanding of BD by personnel from healthcare centers was not as good as expected. There were marked differences depending on job category.