National Vital Statistics System

Organ Donation

One-half of the proxy respondents who were related to decedents dying of external causes reported having heard about organ donation from the media. A third of the respondents reported they had heard about organ donation from a State Department of Motor Vehicles.

Number and percent of proxy respondents who were related to decedents under age 35 years and who died from external (homicide, suicide, accidental injury) causes by source of knowledge concerning organ donation: United States, 1993

Source of knowledge Number Percent1 Standard error of percent 95 percent confidence interval
(+/- percent)
Decedent 1,000 1.9 0.2504 0.5
Other family member 4,000 8.0 0.5117 1.0
Friends 5,000 9.6 0.5746 1.1
School 2,000 3.6 0.3628 0.7
Work 3,000 6.8 0.4754 0.9
Media 23,000 50.0 0.9815 1.9
Church or clergy 1,000 1.9 0.2666 0.5
Physician 3,000 5.4 0.4351 0.9
Other health professional 3,000 6.7 0.5133 1.0
Clubs Z2 0.6 0.1390 0.3
Department of Motor Vehicles 16,000 33.0 0.9136 1.8
Other 4,000 7.9 0.5302 1.0
Never heard about 3,000 7.0 0.4817 0.9

1 Percents base on 47,000 proxy respondents who were related to decedents who died of external causes and were under 35 years of age.

2 Z represents less than 500 respondents.

NOTES: Excludes deaths to persons under 15 years of age and those deaths occurring in South Dakota. Standard errors are estimated using the statistical software package SUDAAN.

SOURCE: NCHS, National Mortality Followback Survey — provisional data, 1993.

Page last reviewed: November 6, 2015