Caregivers and Healthcare Workers’ Willingness to Donate Kidney in Three Tertiary Institutions in Southern Nigeria M.T. Abiodun a, *, A.U. Solarin b , O.A. Adejumo c , and A.A. Akinbodewa c a Department of Child Health, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria; b Department of Paediatrics, Babcock University Teaching Hospital, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria; and c Kidney Care Centre, Ondo, Ondo State, Nigeria ABSTRACT Background. Kidney transplantation (KT) is now the preferred renal replacement therapy in suitable patients with end-stage renal disease but organ availability is a major limiting factor. Aims. To evaluate the willingness of caregivers (CGs) and healthcare workers (HWs) to donate a kidney and possible motivating factors in our setting. Methods. This cross-sectional study was done at Mother and Child Hospital, Kidney Care Centre Ondo and Babcock University Teaching Hospital, all in Southern Nigeria. Participants’ willingness to donate a kidney was assessed using Likert and Visual Analogue Scales (VAS). The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Student t test was used to compare weighted mean scores. Multivariate analysis done; P < .05 was taken as significant. Results. A total of 563 CGs and HWs took part in the study. Sixty percent of them were aware of kidney donation (KD) but only 43.7% had a favorable attitude towards it, and these were predominantly HWs (63.4% vs 33.1%, P < .001). A quarter of the participants were adequately willing to donate a kidney; HWs were significantly more willing than CGs (45.4% vs 15.8%, P < .001). On VAS, the mean willingness score of HWs was higher than that of CGs (t ¼ 7.13, P < .001). Factors strongly influencing the willingness of CGs to donate include their educational level (P ¼ .028, OR ¼ 4.86, 95% CI: 1.19e19.91) social class (P ¼ .012, OR ¼ 6.17 95% CI: 1.5e24.8) and having a relative with kidney disease (P ¼ .019; OR ¼ 3.07 95% CI: 1.25e12.00). Willingness correlated with awareness of KD among CGs (r ¼ 0.534, P < .001). Conclusion. There is a low level of willingness alongside negative attitudes toward kidney donation among our participants. K IDNEY TRANSPLANTATION (KT) is now the preferred renal replacement therapy (RRT) in suit- able patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) due to improved graft survival and procedural safety [1]. Alto- gether, KT is more cost effective than dialysis and it im- proves both the quality and quantity of life of recipients [1,2]. Therefore, there is a need for prompt access to this novel therapy in all regions, considering the rising burden of ESRD globally [1,3]. This is pertinent in resourcee limited settings where patients often cannot sustain the high cost of dialysis [4]. In addition, preemptive KT is sometimes indicated [5], and some children with Wilms tumor can benefit from KT after a 2-year disease-free interval if donor organs are available [6]. In regions with well-established transplantation programs, organ availability is a major limiting factor [7,8]. Often, this leads to increased waiting time before KT and the need to expand the potential donor pool [7e10]. Hence, there is an increasing demand for living donors. Living related and *Address correspondence to Dr. Moses Abiodun, University of Benin, Lagos-Benin Express Way, Ugbowo, Benin City 300001, Nigeria. E-mail: biodunmt@yahoo.com 0041-1345/15 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.transproceed.2015.10.053 ª 2015 by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010-1710 2810 Transplantation Proceedings, 47, 2810e2815 (2015)