Background:

The rates of organ donation are alarmingly low in Chile.

Aim:

To determine the relationship between social and family characteristics that influence the decision to donate organs and tissues among adults.

Material and Methods:

The questionnaire developed in Spain by the international collaborative project on organ transplantation and donation, developed and validated in Chile was applied to 383 adults aged 40 ± 17 years (mostly women), living in Coquimbo, Chile.

Results:

Seventy seven percent of respondents would agree to be a donor.

The main features of eventual donors are:

being young adult in 62% of respondents, single in 48%, with complete secondary education in 29%, non-practicing Catholic in 37% and being informed on television about transplantation in 66%. In a logistic regression model, the features significantly associated with being an eventual donor were the decision of donating organs of relatives (Odds Ratio [OR] 9.1 95% confidence intervals [CI] 4.8-17-2), commenting and knowing the opinion of relatives (OR 2.3 95%CI 1.2-4.1), especially parents and partner, and a lower age (OR 0.98 95% CI 0.96-0.99).

Conclusions:

The decision to donate organs is influenced by commenting and knowing the opinion of relatives, especially parents and partners. Also, a lower age is associated with a better attitude towards donation.