Presumed consent and other predictors of cadaveric organ donation in Europe.

CONTEXT: Few studies on presumed consent and environmental predictors of cadaveric organ donation in Europe have been published.

OBJECTIVE

To determine if a presumed consent policy and other variables can be used to predict the cadaveric organ donation rate per million population.

DESIGN

Secondary analysis of published data.

SETTING

Europe.

PARTICIPANTS

The unit of analysis for this study is the individual country.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Cadaveric organ donation rate per million population.

RESULTS

Original and transformed data were subjected to ordinary least-squares regression. All 4 independent variables were significant predictors of cadaveric donation rate, including (1) having a presumed consent (opting-out) policy in practice, (2) number of transplant centers per million population, (3) percentage of the population enrolled in third-tier education, and (4) percentage of population that is Roman Catholic.

CONCLUSION

Findings may be useful to academics and professionals responsible for organ procurement. Additional research is necessary for practical application of findings. Generalizing these findings beyond Europe may be problematic because of external validity constraints.