Doctors in the Making: How Aware are They About Eye Donation

Abstract

Introduction: A significant cause of visual impairment in the developing world is corneal blindness which may be reversed successfully by transplantation. The availability of corneas transplantation however, is way less than the actual requirement in India. Aim: To assess the knowledge of medical students regarding the eye donation. Settings and Design: Questionnaire based cross-sectional study Materials and Methods: One hundred and twenty six newly enrolled medical students in age group 17-23 years were made to answer a pre tested semi-structured questionnaire on eye donation. Questions were based on testing their knowledge as well as their views towards eye donation. Statistical Analysis was done using SPSS 22 Results: It was observed that a majority (70.63%) of the students, though willing to pledge their eyes, were unaware of the technicalities and held a lot of misconceptions. Mass media was revealed to be the main informant. Many, however did not wish to pledge their eyes due to religious and social beliefs. Conclusion: Even though medical students were aware about eye donation and corneal transplantation, there were many lacunae and misconceptions which need to be refined and cleared to enhance their knowledge and hence increase the number of eye donations in our country

Keywords

• awareness
• corneal blindness
• corneal transplantation
• keratoplasty
• knowledge
• visual impairment