Objective:

To determine the level of knowledge of organ donation (LKD) in tenth-semester Human Medicine students and its relationship with some sociodemographic variables.

Materials and methods:

A cross-sectional survey study conducted with 121 students from a Peruvian university. A questionnaire consisting of five sociodemographic characteristics and 10 questions about LKD was used. Besides the descriptive analysis, a chi-square test was used to compare LKD with the sociodemographic characteristics, considering a significant relationship when the p value was less than 0.05.

Results:

The average age of the students was 23 ± 2.3 years, 51.2 % were males, 78.5 % practiced a religion, 83.5 % acquired their knowledge in an academic environment and 24.8 % had a family member or close friend who needed an organ transplant. Forty-seven percent (47 %), 42 % and 11 % of the students had a high, medium and low LKD, respectively. According to the bivariate analysis, there was no relationship between LKD and the age group of the students (p = 0.696), their sex (p = 0.794), the origin of their knowledge (p = 0.734) or having an acquaintance who needed an organ donation (p = 0.269); however, it was related (p = 0.008; 95% CI 0.008 - 0.011) to practicing a religion.

Conclusions:

Most tenth-semester Human Medicine students had a high LKD, which was related to practicing a religion.

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