KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE REGARDING EYE DONATION AMONG THE ADOLESCENTS : A CO-RELATIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Abstract: Background: Vision is the most important sense because it allows interacting freely with the environment and enjoying the beauty of life. The eye is the window to the world and it is a sensitive, highly specialized sense organ subject to various disorders, many of which lead to impaired vision. Blindness is a lack or loss of ability to see; lack of perception of visual stimuli. The diseases of the cornea are one of the major causes of blindness in India for which the vision can be restored by eye donation. Eye sight is very important for human life. The World Health Organization (W.H.O) estimates that for every 5 seconds, someone goes blind. Globally 37 million people are blind and of these nearly 10 lakh blind people are willing for corneal transplantation. Well informed adolescents could be expected to influence eye donation rates. Methods: Descriptive survey approach with co-relational design was used for the study. The aim of the study was to assess the knowledge and attitude regarding eye donation among the adolescents and to identify the relationship between them. The Structured knowledge questionnaire and Attitude scale on eye donation were used to collect the data. The data were collected by questionnaire method from 100 adolescents, who were selected using non-probability purposive sampling technique at Yenepoya pre- university college, Mangalore, India. Data collected from the subjects were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The mean percentage of the knowledge scores among adolescents were 57%, the mean percentage of the attitude scores among adolescents were 70.5% and there was a positive correlation between knowledge and attitude among adolescents (r(98) = 0.201). Table value r(98) = 0.236, p< 0.313). Conclusion: The findings of the study showed that the adolescents had good knowledge and positive attitude towards eye donation and there was a positive co-relation between knowledge and attitude among adolescents.