Survey on Health Students’ Knowledge and Perception on Body Donation for Scientific Research, Education, And Training after Specific Italian Law No. 10/2020

Abstract

Background: Practicing on human body was considered extremely relevant for health professionals’ education, but a drastic reduction was observed due to alternative virtual and multimedia means increase, and, in Italy, also due to a lack of regulation. Italian Law 10/2020 regulates body donation for research and training, through advanced disposition to post-mortem body donation.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out to investigate law knowledge and body donation perception of health students of any degree courses enrolled at the University of Pavia, Italy, in 2021, through ad hoc web questionnaire.

Results: Altogether 485 students with a median age of 21 years (20-23) participated to this survey, 73.2% were females, 62.5% were medical students. Among them, 8.3% reported current availability of cadaveric practice and 14.9% knew the Italian law 10/2020. Age was the only variable associated with students’ knowledge of the law. Further, 85.6% of health students acknowledged usefulness of cadaveric practice, with a significant difference between medical and non-medical students (71.4% vs 28.6%, p<0.001). Overall, 59.69% would donate their body, rising to 62.7% with reference to specific law regulation, with 30.5% and 28.7% of undecided respectively. 51.3% of participants answered not practicing religious faith, 82.9% with Catholics family, without significance on the knowledge of the law.

Conclusion: Poor knowledge of the law compared with great interest and acknowledged cadaveric practice usefulness highlighted the need of better information, especially among health students, where critical discussion could be more fruitful. Moreover, specific disclosure of body donation program, from in life consenting to cadaveric practice, resulted decisive to avoid indecision and refusal and then lack of bodies for research and training. Consequences on basic and specific health students’ skills, on health education quality in general, and further on risk management and professional liability profiles must be careful considered.

Keywords: body donation, organ donation, Italian Law 10/2020, cadaveric practice, health students, anatomical education