College of Medicine, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Sultan Qaboos Univ Med J. 2022 Feb;22(1):106-112. doi: 10.18295/squmj.4.2021.056. Epub 2022 Feb 28.
To attain more local corneal donations, awareness of corneal donations must be raised among doctors and medical students. This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge and attitude of medical students regarding corneal donations.
This cross-sectional study was conducted among male fifth- and final-year medical students at the College of Medicine, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Saudi Arabia, between August and October 2019. Non-probability convenience sampling was used and an English-language self-administered questionnaire was administered to evaluate different aspects of the participants' knowledge regarding and attitudes towards corneal donation. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and independent samples t-test.
A total of 141 students participated in this study (response rate: 53%). A mean score of 3.24 ± 1.86 was achieved by the participants on the knowledge test. Approximately 47% of the sample correctly recognised that people who die of AIDS cannot donate an eye. The most common reason for eye donations was to provide vision to a blind person (47%), while a lack of understanding of benefits to others (55%) and religious beliefs (44%) were seen barriers. The internet was identified by 56% as the most common source of information. There was no significant difference in the knowledge of fifth-year and final-year medical students (3.31 ± 1.84 versus 3.17 ± 1.89; = 0.65).
This study showed a low level of knowledge of corneal donations among the participants. Raising awareness among medical students is important to increase donation rates. However, media and the internet are not enough to achieve this. Basic knowledge of corneal donations to students by organising awareness-raising activities and motivating them for voluntary participation is important to fill this knowledge gap.
为了获得更多的本地角膜捐献，必须提高医生和医学生对角膜捐献的认识。本研究旨在评估医学生对角膜捐献的知识和态度。
本横断面研究于 2019 年 8 月至 10 月在沙特阿拉伯阿卜杜勒阿齐兹国王健康科学大学医学院的五年级和最后一年的男医学生中进行。使用非概率便利抽样，并使用英语自填式问卷评估参与者对角膜捐献的知识和态度的不同方面。使用描述性统计、方差分析和独立样本 t 检验对数据进行分析。
共有 141 名学生参加了这项研究（应答率：53%）。参与者在知识测试中平均得分为 3.24 ± 1.86。大约 47%的样本正确认识到死于艾滋病的人不能捐献眼睛。捐献眼睛的最常见原因是为盲人提供视力（47%），而缺乏对他人受益的理解（55%）和宗教信仰（44%）被视为障碍。56%的人认为互联网是最常见的信息来源。五年级和最后一年医学生的知识水平没有显著差异（3.31 ± 1.84 与 3.17 ± 1.89； = 0.65）。
本研究显示参与者对角膜捐献的知识水平较低。提高医学生的意识对于提高捐赠率很重要。然而，媒体和互联网还不足以实现这一目标。通过组织提高认识的活动并激励他们自愿参与，向学生传授角膜捐献的基本知识对于填补这一知识空白很重要。
