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The purpose of this study was to identify factors that affect willingness to donate kidneys posthumously among Malaysians.

A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study assessing demographics, attitude, spirituality, knowledge and willingness to donate a kidney was conducted among adult Malaysians with oral informed consent. The total number of samples was 1,001 respondents. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was performed.

A total of 29.17% (n = 292) were willing to donate kidneys, while the remaining 70.83% (n = 709) were not. The mean spirituality score was 80.95 ± 13.79 (maximum score 100), mean attitude score was 52.88 ± 8.074 (maximum score 70) and mean knowledge score was 1.84 ± 0.99 (maximum score 5). A higher score demonstrated a stronger spiritual level, positive attitude and better knowledge. Factors affecting willingness to donate a kidney were ethnicity (odds ratio [OR] = 15.625, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.043–0.094) and attitude toward kidney donation score (OR = 0.924, 95% CI = 0.902–0.945).

Culture-specific steps to improve programs that may contribute toward improving kidney donation posthumously among Malaysians should be developed. Results drawn from this work demonstrate that policymakers, health-care workers and stakeholders should work together to promote effective policies and program implementation to reduce the ever-increasing gap between the need and shortage crisis of kidney donation.

Kidney transplantation (KT) is the treatment of choice for end-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD) and is well known to improve the clinical outcome of patients. However, the impact of KT on comorbid psychological symptoms, particularly depression and anxiety, is less clear, and recipients of living-donor (LD) organs may have a different psychological outcome from recipients of dead-donor (DD) organs.

In total, 152 patients were included and analyzed using a cross-sectional design. Of these patients, 25 were pre-KT, 13 were post-KT with a LD transplant and 114 were post-KT with a DD transplant. The patients were tested for a variety of psychometric outcomes using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the 12-Item Short Form Health Survey (assessing physical and mental health-related quality of life), the Resilience Scale, the Coping Self-Questionnaire and the Social Support Questionnaire.

The mean age of the patients was 51.25 years and 40 per cent of the patients were female. As expected, the post-KT patients had significantly better scores on the physical component of the Short Form Health Survey than the pre-KT patients, and there were no significant differences between the two post-KT groups. There were no significant differences among the groups in any of the other psychometric outcome parameters tested, including anxiety, depression and the mental component of health-related quality of life.

KT and the origin of the donor organ do not appear to have a significant impact on the psychological well-being of transplant patients with CKD. Although the diagnosis and early treatment of psychological symptoms, such as depression and anxiety, remain important for these patients, decisions regarding KT, including the mode of transplantation, should not be fundamentally influenced by concerns about psychological impairments at the population level.

CKD is a serious condition involving profound impairment of the physical and psychological well-being of patients. KT is considered the treatment of choice for most of these patients. KT has notable advantages over dialysis with regard to the long-term physical functioning of the renal and cardiovascular system and increases the life expectancy of patients. However, the data on the improvement of psychological impairments after KT are less conclusive.

This study aims to develop a hierarchical model that uncovers the relationships between challenges confronting Africa's organ transplant supply chain systems.

Eleven challenges (variables) were identified after a comprehensive review of the existing literature. The contextual interactions among these variables were analysed from the perspectives of health-care stakeholders in two sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries (Nigeria and Uganda), using Delphi-interpretive structural modelling-cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) techniques.

The findings reveal that weak regulatory frameworks, insufficient information systems and a lack of necessary skills make it challenging for critical actors to perform the tasks effectively. The interaction effects of these challenges weaken organ supply chains and make it less efficient, giving rise to negative externalities such as black markets for donated organs and organ tourism/trafficking.

This paper establishes a solid foundation for a critical topic that could significantly impact human health and life once the government or non-profit ecosystem matures. The MICMAC analysis in this paper provides a methodological approach for future studies wishing to further develop the organ supply chain structural models.

The study provides valuable insights for experts and policymakers on where to prioritise efforts in designing interventions to strengthen organ transplantation supply chains in developing countries.

This study is one of the first to empirically examine the challenges of organ transplant supply chains from an SSA perspective, including theoretically grounded explanations from data collected in two developing countries.

This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of depression and associated risk factors among patients on hemodialysis in Jazan area, Saudi Arabia.

The study was conducted on 211 randomly selected hemodialysis patients in Jazan area, Saudi Arabia, using an observational cross-sectional design. Patients were screened for depressive symptoms using the depression, anxiety and stress scale 42 (DASS-42). Descriptive statistics were used to present sociodemographic data. Multiple logistic regression was implemented to identify the predictors of depression. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS 22.0 software.

The study found the overall prevalence of depression among patients on hemodialysis to be 43.6 per cent. Of them, 12.8 per cent were mildly depressed, 15.6 per cent were moderately depressed and 15.1 per cent fell in the severe or extremely severe category. Depression was significantly associated with marital status, education level and the presence of sleep disturbances. The study indicates a high prevalence of depressive symptoms among patients on hemodialysis in Jazan. A higher rate of depressive symptoms was observed in currently unmarried, lower-educated patients and those with sleep disturbance.

Periodic evaluation of patients on hemodialysis for depression is needed to allow for early intervention.