Albertans Are Willing To Donate Organs, But Many Don't Discuss It With Their Families

Calgary, AB - With the national organ and tissue awareness week coming up from April 21st to April 28th, 2002, an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted on behalf of the Southern Alberta Kidney Foundation reveals that most Albertans (88%) are willing to donate their organs after death. But, despite the large number who would donate, fewer (62%) have discussed the idea with their families. This means there is a large proportion of Albertans (26%) who are willing to donate but have not discussed the donation of their organs with the rest of their family.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted between March 21st and March 25th, 2002. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 800 adult Albertans. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire population in Alberta been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual provincial population according to the 1996 Census data.

Nine-in-Ten (88%) Albertans are Willing to Donate Their Organs After Death

Most (88%) Albertans said they were willing to donate their own organs when they die, while one-in-ten (10%) stated that they were not willing to give up their organs when they pass on.

• Women (91%) are more likely to be willing to donate their organs when they die than men (86%).
• Albertans with an annual household income of more than $70,000 per year are more likely (93%) to be willing to donate their organs than those with an annual household income of less than $70,000 (86%).
• Older Albertans (those 55 years of age and older) are less likely (82%) to be willing to donate their organs than their younger counterparts (90%).

In all, over nine-in-ten (93%) Albertans are in favour of organ donation, while only 6% are not in favour.

• Women (95%) are slightly more likely to be in favour of organ donation than men (91%).
• Albertans with a university education (96%) are most likely to be in favour of organ donation when compared to those with some post secondary training (94%) and those with a high school education or less (90%).
• Respondents over the age of 55 (90%) are less likely to be in favour of the idea of donating organs than those under the age of 55 (95%).

But Not All (62%) Have Discussed Their Wishes With Their Families

Despite nine-in-ten (88%) who are willing to donate their organs, only two-thirds (62%) have discussed the idea with their families. Fully 37% say they have not talked to their families about donating their organs when they die. This means 26% of Albertans are willing to donate their organs but may not be able to because they have not discussed it with their families.

• Women (68%) are more likely to have discussed organ donation with their families than men (57%).
• Likelihood of discussing organ donation with family members increases significantly with education from 51% among those with a High School education or less to 71% among those with a University education.
• A similar trend appears for income, with 55% of those with an annual household income of less than $30,000 saying they have discussed organ donation with their family to 68% of those earning more than $70,000 per year.

Currently, 80% are aware that their organ donor card is located on the back of their Alberta Healthcare Card

• Women (86%) are notably more likely than men (74%) to be aware that the donor card is on the back of the Healthcare Card.
• Awareness of the donor card increases with education from 75% among those with a High School education or less to 85% among those with a university education.
• A similar trend appears for income with 76% of those with an annual household income of less than $30,000 being aware to 81% among those earning more than $70,000 per year.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Gillian Grantham
Research Manager
Ipsos-Reid
(403) 237- 0066