Awareness and knowledge on eye donation among Allied Health Sciences, medical, and nursing students in Goa

• Main Authors: Barsha Lal, Ugam Usgaonkar, Harshada Narvekar, Dinesh Venugopal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2018-09-01
• Series: Journal of Current Ophthalmology
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452232517302068

Purpose: To assess the awareness and knowledge on eye donation among students of Allied Health Sciences (AHS), medical, and nursing. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted using a standard predesigned and pretested closed-ended structured questionnaire based on eye donation to obtain information about awareness and knowledge from AHS, medical, and nursing students of Goa. Results: Three hundred and forty participants participated in the study. The majority of the participants [97.9% (95% CI: 95.8–99.2)] were aware of the existence of eye donation. Mass media (62.9%) was the foremost source of information. However, only 145 [42.6% (95% CI: 37.3–48.1)] participants were willing to donate their eyes. AHS, medical, and nursing students stood apart significantly in their awareness and knowledge. Only 60 [17.6% (95% CI: 13.7–22.1)] participants were aware that the whole eye can be removed from the donor while 215 [63.2% (95% CI: 57.9–68.4)] were wrongly aware that the cornea can be removed separately. Awareness about eye donation was not associated with willingness to donate eyes. Conclusions: Although awareness regarding eye donation was satisfactory, there was lack of willingness to donate eyes. There is a need to bridge the gap between eye bank and donors. Keywords: Eye donation, Awareness, Knowledge, Corneal transplantation, Allied Health Science, Medical