• Impact of Organ Donation on Grief Symptoms in Iranian Families
  • Marzieh Latifi,1 Elahe pourhosein,2 Ehsan Alibeigi,3 Maryam Pourhossein,4 Sanaz Dehghani,5,*
    1. Medical ethics and law research center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
    2. Organ Procurement Unit Sina Hospital Tehran University of Medical Sciences Tehran Iran.
    3. Organ Procurement Unit Sina Hospital Tehran University of Medical Sciences Tehran Iran.
    4. Organ Procurement Unit Sina Hospital Tehran University of Medical Sciences Tehran Iran.
    5. Organ Procurement Unit Sina Hospital Tehran University of Medical Sciences Tehran Iran.


  • Introduction: Families often become the key decision-makers in determining who receives scarce, life-saving organs, especially when patients have not expressed their wishes. These decisions, made in moments of trauma and profound sadness, can ultimately determine the fate of individuals waiting for organ transplants. This study aimed to identify the factors that influence grief among donor families regarding organ donation.
  • Methods: This analytic cross-sectional study aimed to assess the grief scores of family members, including parents, spouses, siblings, and children, who had been through the organ donation process. Convenience sampling was used to select participants for this study. The Grief Experience Questionnaire (GEQ-34) was utilized as the instrument for data collection through an online survey on the Google Forms platform. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: the first part gathered demographic information about the families of the organ donors, while the second part assessed the psychological impact of the donation (grief reaction), which participants completed themselves. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression were utilized to determine the factors influencing grief using SPSS software (version 19) with a significance level of 0.05.
  • Results: The donor gender was mostly male (153 (68.9%)) with a mean age of 35.96 ± 17.05 (range: 2–68) years at the time of death. The mean score of GEQ was 93.3±22.4, ranging from 39 to 141. The findings revealed that 23 (10.4%), 100 (45%), and 99 (44.6%) of participants suffered from low, moderate, and high levels of grief, respectively. There is a significant difference between knowledge about brain death and the level of grief (P = 0.008). There is a significant difference between Cause of brain death. There is a significant difference between having a card (physical card, registering to get a card, donor verbal consent) and GEQ level (F: 1.96, P = 0.045).
  • Conclusion: As evidenced by the obtained results, among the subscales of grief, the highest scores were related to the dimensions of guilt.
  • Keywords: Grief; Organ donation; Brain Death; Donor family.