Opinions on renal transplantation and organ donation in high school students in two large northern (Torino) and southern (Napoli) Italian cities.

Organ shortage for transplantation has focused attention on educational interventions. Italy is a nonhomogenous country whose cultural and economic differences are reflected in the health-care system: dialysis is mainly public in the north versus private in the south; and transplantation rates display a wide range from 3.4 to 37.8 per million people in 2002.