Objective  To investigate the citizen's attitude towards the cognition of brain death and the legislation of brain death criteria.

  Methods  A questionnaire survey was performed in 1 500 outpatients or accompanying personnel by the convenient sampling method. The questionnaire data were independently recorded by two professionals using the Epidata 3.02 software. The factors influencing the citizen's support of the legislation of brain death were analyzed by univariate and multivariate Logistic regression models.

  Results  Among 1 433 eligible respondents, 84.65% (1 213/1 433) of them knew brain death, and 24.32% (295/1 213) considered brain death as a reasonable criterion for death. The proportion of respondents who supported and opposed the legislation of brain death was 49.79% (604/1 213) and 17.31% (210/1 213).Male odds ratio (OR)=1.3, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.0-1.6, those with junior college degree or above at educational level (OR=1.5, 95%CI 1.1-1.9), those whose relatives and friends were engaged in organ donation (OR=3.3, 95%CI 1.1-10.3), those who participated in public welfare activities of organ donation (OR=3.1, 95%CI 1.6-6.0) and those who regarded brain death as a reasonable criterion for death (OR=2.0, 95%CI 1.5-2.6) were more inclined to support the legislation of brain death, which were the independent influencing factors of the legislation of brain death (all P < 0.05).

  Conclusions  Citizens have relatively low cognition and support of the legislation of brain death criteria. Relevant propaganda on brain death should be widely carried out to strengthen the citizen basis for the legislation.