The public's willingness to discuss their preference for organ donation with family members

We sought to assess the public's willingness to discuss their preference for organ donation with family members and to identify factors associated with willingness to discuss donation. We categorized individuals (N = 4365) with a preference for donation according to their willingness to discuss donation and used ordinal logistic regression analysis to identify factors related to their level of willingness. About half of those who want to donate have discussed this with a family member. Others were at various stages with respect to their commitment to discuss donation. Those in the more committed stages were more likely than others to have signed an organ donor card, to have seen information about organ donation, to be male, to be white or Hispanic, to know about donation issues, and to be comfortable with the idea of their own death. The decision to donate is ultimately made by family members of a suitable candidate for donation, yet nearly half of those who wish to donate have not made their wishes known. Interventions targeted to individuals at different stages of commitment are needed so that more family members can respond in accordance with their loved one's wishes.