Assessment of Knowledge About Biobanking Among Healthcare Students and Their Willingness to Donate Biospecimens

Overview

Journal BMC Med Ethics

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Medical Ethics

Date 2017 May 4

PMID 28464877

Citations 29

Authors

Leena Merdad

Lama Aldakhil

Rawan Gadi

Mourad Assidi

Salina Y Saddick

Adel Abuzenadah

Jim Vaught

Abdelbaset Buhmeida

Mohammed H Al-Qahtani

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Biobanks and biospecimen collections are becoming a primary means of delivering personalized diagnostics and tailoring individualized therapeutics. This shift towards precision medicine (PM) requires interactions among a variety of stakeholders, including the public, patients, healthcare providers, government, and donors. Very few studies have investigated the role of healthcare students in biobanking and biospecimen donations. The main aims of this study were (1) to evaluate the knowledge of senior healthcare students about biobanks and (2) to assess the students' willingness to donate biospecimens and the factors influencing their attitudes.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among senior healthcare students at King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Saudi Arabia. The data were obtained using a self-administered questionnaire in English. In addition to the respondents' biographical data section, the questionnaire assessed the respondents' general knowledge about biobanking, the factors influencing their willingness to donate biospecimens to biobanks and their general attitudes towards biomedical research.

Results: A total of 597 senior healthcare students were included in the study. The general knowledge score was 3.2 (±1.6) out of 7. Only approximately 44% and 27% of students were aware of the terms "Human Genome Project" (HGP) and "biobank," respectively. The majority of the students (89%) were willing to donate biospecimens to biobanks. Multiple factors were significantly associated with their willingness to donate, including their perceived general health (p < 0.001), past experience with both tissue testing (p < 0.04) and tissue donation (p < 0.001), biobanking knowledge score (p < 0.001) and biomedical research attitude score (p < 0.001). The main reasons for students' willingness to donate were advancement of medical research and societal benefits, whereas misuse of biospecimens and confidentiality breaches were the main reasons for a reluctance to donate.

Conclusion: Despite their strong willingness to donate biospecimens, students exhibited a notable lack of knowledge about biobanking and the HGP. To expedite the transition towards PM, it is highly recommended to enhance healthcare curricula by including more educational and awareness programmes to familiarize students with OMICs technologies in addition to the scope of research and clinical applications.

Citing Articles

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Pronicki L, Czech M, Gujski M, Boguszewska N Healthcare (Basel). 2023; 11(20).

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When Biobanks Meet Religion: Association Between Religiosity and Attitudes of Polish Medical Students Toward Biobanking of Human Biological Material for Research Purposes.

Domaradzki J, Walkowiak D J Relig Health. 2023; 63(2):1178-1213.

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