Analysis of the Socio-Personal Profile of Latin Americans Living in Spain and the United States: Does It Justify the Differences in Attitude Toward Organ Donation?

INTRODUCTION

There are differences in the attitude toward organ donation between Latin Americans living in Spain and those living in the United States.

OBJECTIVE

We sought to analyze the socio-personal factors that can condition the difference in attitude toward donation between Latin Americans living in the United States and those living in Spain.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Participants in the study were Latin Americans living in Spain (group A; n=1237) and the United States (Florida) (group B; n=1450), extracted from the database of the International Collaborative Donor Project (PCID). Inclusion criteria were a sample population stratified by area, country of birth, age, and sex. The instrument used was a validated attitude questionnaire toward living kidney donation (PCID-DTO-Rios.) Participants were randomly selected to be surveyed according to stratification.

RESULTS

The attitude in favor of Latin Americans residing in Spain (group A) was 60% (n=745) vs 33% (n=485) of residents in the United States (group B) (P < .001). The socio-personal profile of the Latin Americans in Spain compared with those in the United States indicates that they are mainly women (63.5% vs 43.7%, respectively), younger (31.78 vs 37.31 years, respectively), have more secondary education (21.2% vs 16.3%, respectively) and university studies (11% vs 6%, respectively), are of South American origin vs those who are Mexican and Central American, respectively, and there is a higher percentage of atheists/agnostics (8.1% vs 3.7%). However, the personal profile toward donation is similar in both groups, both for and against organ donation.

CONCLUSIONS

The personal social profile of the Latin American resident in Spain is different from that of the resident in the United States. However, the psycho-social profile for and against organ donation is similar in both countries.