A cross-sectional study on awareness of eye donation in medical students

Abstract

Background: Corneal diseases cause visual impairment and blindness and account for approximately 70–80 lakhs cases of blindness in the world. Treatment for restoring vision in patients with corneal blindness is done with corneal transplantation, which requires corneal donation. At present, in India, the collection of donor’s eyes amounts to around 22,000 eyes each year, which is far less important in terms of need. Therefore, collecting the eyes of donors is of prime importance in any organized effort to reduce corneal blindness. Aims and Objectives: We designed this study to assess the awareness, knowledge, and attitude of 1st- and 2nd-year MBBS students toward eye donation. Materials and Methods: Questionnaires were given to the 1st- and 2nd-year MBBS students and statistical analyses were carried out for checking of knowledge and awareness of the students about eye donation. One hundred and forty-five students from 1st-year MBBS and 145 students from 2nd-year MBBS participated in the study. Ethical permission was obtained before conducting the study. Results: Of the total 290 students, 285 (98.28%) had awareness about eye donation. One hundred and ten (75.8%) 1st-year students and 126 (86.9%) 2nd-year students were aware that eye donation should be made within the first 6 h after death. Conclusion: Although the awareness of eye donation is good in medical students, the number of students pledged is very low. To make the dream of converting the awareness into pledging and procurement of eyes, knowledge about eye donation is highly required. Researchers had worked on multiple strategies to raise awareness for eye donations and corneal transplantation, it is perceived that some innovative strategies must be tried and there is a need for the incorporation of more information into the medical curriculum.