A Before–After Study With a Novel Educational Tool for Reducing Non–Heart‐Beating Donation Hesitancy in High Schools

Background: Non–heart-beating donors have great potential for organ donation, which still needs to be used. Young adults aged 18–30 years are often hesitant to donate their organs; high schools are ideal places for education aimed at fostering donations, but efective strategies still need to be developed in the literature. Objective: To build an educational intervention targeted at high school students aged 18+, also developing dedicated tools. Materials and Methods: A before–after study on a non-randomized sample of students from eight schools of two campuses in Northern Italy. A questionnaire was built and validated (Cronbach’s alpha, exploratory factor analysis). An educational interactive game was created to involve the students. Results: One hundred and eighty-seven students were enrolled (M�108�57.75%, F�67�35.8%, nonbinary�5�2.7%, non- responders n � 7 � 3.75%). Te questionnaire proved valid and reliable (alpha � 0.889, all factor loadings above Stevens’ cutof). Intention to donate raised signifcantly from 33.0% to 42.6% (p < 0.05); so did knowledge about non–heart-beating donations. Tere was a signifcant increase in those who would have wanted to ask such questions to healthcare personnel (p < 0.001) (n � 87, 47.3% vs. n � 84, 70.59%, p < 0.05). Te main reasons for not expressing the willingness to donate were “it’s too early in my life,” lack of information, and fear that the organs could be stolen or sold. Conclusion: Tis educational game proved engaging; the questionnaire was successfully validated and can be used in future studies on education about organ donation.