Knowledge and attitudes toward brain death and organ donation in Bojnurd

Background: Organ donation in Iran is common. Bojnurd (North Khorasan, Iran) is a multi-ethnic city, and people with different religions and cultures live together and that could be associated with their behavior and attitude towards health-related issues. So far, no study has taken place on brain death and organ donation in the province of North Khorasan. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge and attitudes of citizens of Bojnurd toward brain death and organ donation. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from March to September 2014, on 380 Bojnurd citizens who were selected through multi-stage sampling. The tool was a researcher-made questionnaire in three parts (demographic information, awareness and attitude surveys), containing 10 questions on awareness and 18 questions on attitude. The questionnaire validity and reliability were confirmed by content validity and Cronbach's alpha (0.76). The data were analyzed by using SPSS version 16, using Chi-square, independent- samples t-test, and Spearman correlation coefficient. Significance level was set at p