Knowledge, attitude, practice pattern and willingness for eye donation among tribal population of Northern Odisha

Abstract

To evaluate knowledge, attitude, practice pattern and willingness of the tribal population for eye donation among patients and their relatives attending outpatient department of Ophthalmology in a tertiary health care hospital in Northern Odisha. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire on eye donation was given to 984 persons, patients as well as their attendants were asked to select the correct answer among the multiple choices given against each question. Data was analyzed using SPSS 26 software. Out of 984 participants, 554(56.3%) were males and 430(43.6%) were females. 876(89%) participants belonged to tribal area. Among the participants only 220(22.3%) had knowledge about the nearest eye bank and eye donation center .640(65%) had prior knowledge about eye donation. Willingness for eye donation is 48% among tribals. The main reason for unwillingness among tribal population was insufficient information regarding eye donation. Multipronged strategies need to be adopted to provide sufficient information to the tribal population regarding eye donation to increase their willingness for eye donation.