Muslim Americans’ Views on Making Organ Donation Decisions in the Department of Motor Vehicles Setting

Introduction: Organ donation-related education is offered, and decisions are made at state Department of Motor Vehicles; however, little is known about Muslim Americans’ attitudes toward these common practices. Research Questions: Are participants comfortable learning about deceased organ donation in the Department of Motor Vehicles setting? Are participants prepared to make deceased organ donation-related decisions at the Department of Motor Vehicles? Design: A survey of Muslim Americans attending an educational workshop at 4 mosques in two US cities. Primary study outcomes were self-reported (a) preparedness to make deceased donation-related decisions and (b) comfort with receiving organ donation education in the license renewal setting. We calculated Pearson product-moment correlations between these primary outcomes and participant characteristics including sociodemographic descriptors, religiosity and religious coping measures, and discrimination measures. Results: Most respondents indicated they were not prepared to make organ donation-related decisions at the Department of Motor Vehicles (79.6%). Preparedness did not vary by age, gender, country of origin or US residency duration, nor by religiosity, negative religious coping, or experiences of discrimination. However, higher scores on positive religious coping were associated with lower ratings of preparedness. A slight majority (58.9%) of respondents were comfortable receiving organ donation education. Conclusions: Muslim Americans are comfortable with learning about organ donation while at the Department of Motor Vehicles but are ill-prepared to make deceased donation-related decisions in the same setting. Further research is required to understand whether changes to the license renewal setting would improve decision-making outcomes in this population.