Knowledge and attitude toward do-not-resuscitate among patients and their relatives visiting outpatient clinics at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Jawaher R. Al Ahmadi; Sondos N. Aljehani; Lujain M. Bahakeem; Bushra A. Hijan; Sarah A. Mayet; Yosra A. Badahdah

doi:10.15537/smj.2020.1.24782

Abstract

Objectives: To assess knowledge and attitudes about do not resuscitate (DNR) among patients and their relatives visiting outpatient clinics at King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH), Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted between March and April 2018 with a self-administered questionnaire among patients and their relatives visiting outpatient clinics at KAUH. A systematic random selection of individuals every other day.

Results: The questionnaire was filled by 400 participants. Fifty-four percent were patients’ relatives, and approximately 60% were female. Out of 105 (26.3%) who were familiar with the DNR term, 44.8% chose the correct definition, 5.2% had previous experience with the DNR term, and 34.3% of them had DNR-related knowledge from social media. Out of the 400 participants, 169 (42.3%) disagreed with DNR. The majority of responders did not know if there is DNR policy or fatwa (a legal opinion on the point of Islamic law).

Conclusion: There is a lack of knowledge regarding DNR among participants.

Footnotes

Disclosure. Authors have no conflict of interests, and the work was not supported or funded by any drug company.

Received July 11, 2019.
Accepted November 22, 2019.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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