Knowledge of Kidney Donation Among Care Givers in Two Tertiary Hospitals in Southwest Nigeria *Oluseyi A. Adejumo, †Adaobi U. Solarin, ‡Moses T. Abiodun, and *Ayodeji A. Akinbodewa *Department of Internal Medicine, Kidney Care Centre, Kidney Care Centre, University of Medical Sciences Ondo, Ondo State; †Department of Paediatrics, Babcock University Teaching Hospital, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State; and ‡Department of Child Health, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria Abstract: One of the major challenges of kidney trans- plantation is shortage of kidney donors. Care givers (CGs) are potential kidney donors, but the majority of them are unwilling to donate due to inadequate knowledge on kid- ney donation. This study evaluated the knowledge of kid- ney donation and its determinants among CGs in two tertiary hospitals in Southwest Nigeria. This was a cross- sectional study that was carried out in the Kidney Care Centre (KCC), Ondo and Babcock University Teaching Hospital (BUTH), Ilishan-Remo using a self-administered pretested questionnaire that assessed knowledge of kidney donation and its determinants. Pvalue of <0.05 was taken as significant. A total of 244 respondents participated in the study. The majority were below 40 years, married, and female. The proportion of respondents with adequate knowledge of kidney donation was 63.4%. More respond- ents from BUTH compared to KCC had adequate knowl- edge of kidney donation (80% vs. 46.7%, P  0.001). Similarly, the mean knowledge score was higher in respondents from BUTH (P  0.001). Factors that deter- mined knowledge of kidney donation were female gender (AOR: 3.43, 95% CI: 1.25–9.40, P 5 0.02) and social class (AOR: 1.22, 95% CI: 0.50–2.95, P  0.001). There was pos- itive correlation between knowledge of kidney donation among the respondents from both hospitals and their will- ingness to donate kidneys (r 5 0.439, P  0.001). Knowl- edge of kidney donation was better among BUTH’s respondents. Gender and social class were predictors of knowledge of kidney donation. Improving knowledge of kidney donation may improve willingness to donate among the public. Key Words: Knowledge, Care giver, Kidney donation. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has become a public health problem due to its increasing preva- lence globally as well its associated high morbidity and mortality (1,2). CKD is associated with huge health and economic burden and the impact is more pronounced in developing countries (3). Renal transplantation is the best choice of treat- ment for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) because it offers better quality of life and survival advantage and is more cost effective com- pared with dialytic therapy (4–6). However, one of the major challenges of kidney transplantation is shortage of kidney donors (7,8). In fact, the number of patients with ESRD and those on transplant lists has increased without a proportionate increase in the available number of kidneys for transplantation in the past years. The average waiting time for kid- ney transplant in the United States is 5 years and the chance of a patient getting transplanted is less than 20% (8,9). Care givers (CGs) of patients who are usually their relatives and friends are potential live kidney donors, but the majority of them are still unwilling to donate kidneys despite the fact that long-term fol- low-up studies on kidney donors have reported it to be safe (10). Some of the barriers to kidney dona- tion include lack of adequate knowledge about kid- ney donation and associated risk, fear, mistrust, cultural beliefs, religion, and myths concerning being doi: 10.1111/aor.12769 Received February 2016; revised March 2016. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Oluseyi A. Adejumo, Kidney Care Centre, University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, Ondo State, Nigeria. E-mail: ceeward2010@yahoo.com Artificial Organs 2016, 00(00):00–00 Copyright V C 2016 International Center for Artificial Organs and Transplantation and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.