Jaipuri Afrid T, Ambekar Sanjeevani V
Ophthalmology, Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Government Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital, Pune, IND.
Cureus. 2025 Feb 16;17(2):e79117. doi: 10.7759/cureus.79117. eCollection 2025 Feb.
Background Corneal blindness poses a significant public health concern in India. Penetrating keratoplasty stands out as the most efficient and frequently conducted solid organ transplantation procedure, providing significant potential for visual rehabilitation in affected patients, but its broad application continues to be impeded by the limited availability of donor corneas. The low rate of eye donation has been attributed to both the reluctance of potential donors to pledge their eyes and the inadequate efforts by healthcare workers to educate the public about the eye donation process, signifying the need to assess the knowledge and attitude about eye donation among medical and nursing students. Purpose This study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitude about eye donation among medical and nursing students in a tertiary care centre in Western India. Methodology In this cross-sectional, descriptive study, 500 medical and nursing students were selected as participants by convenience sampling. Knowledge and attitude were assessed regarding eye donation by using a self-designed, pre-validated questionnaire, which contained 13 questions (eight in the knowledge domain and five in the attitude domain). Descriptive statistics were used to elaborate on the participants' demographic characteristics. The categorical variable was measured in percentage while the continuous variable was conveyed as mean ± SD. A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. All analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 20. Results Out of 500 participants who completed the questionnaire, 204 (40.8%) were male and 296 (59.2%) were female. It was seen that 47 participants (9.4%) had excellent knowledge (score > 6), 355 participants (71%) had good knowledge (score 4-6), and 98 participants (19.6%) had poor knowledge (score < 4) about eye donation. Only 245 participants (49%) were willing to donate their eyes. Conclusion There is a need to impart knowledge and modify attitudes about eye donation among medical and nursing students since they will be playing a major role in educating and motivating potential donors regarding eye donation. Mass education and awareness programs are also needed to encourage the attitude of a family as a unit since many of the participants were hesitant to donate because of a lack of support from family.
角膜盲在印度是一个重大的公共卫生问题。穿透性角膜移植术是最有效且实施最频繁的实体器官移植手术，为受影响患者的视力恢复提供了巨大潜力，但供体角膜的有限供应继续阻碍其广泛应用。眼捐赠率低既归因于潜在捐赠者不愿捐赠眼睛，也归因于医护人员在向公众宣传眼捐赠过程方面的努力不足，这表明有必要评估医学和护理专业学生对眼捐赠的知识和态度。目的：本研究旨在评估印度西部一家三级护理中心的医学和护理专业学生对眼捐赠的知识和态度。方法：在这项横断面描述性研究中，通过便利抽样选择了500名医学和护理专业学生作为参与者。使用一份自行设计、预先验证的问卷评估对眼捐赠的知识和态度，该问卷包含13个问题（知识领域8个，态度领域5个）。描述性统计用于阐述参与者的人口统计学特征。分类变量以百分比衡量，连续变量以均值±标准差表示。p值<0.05被认为具有统计学意义。所有分析均使用IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows 20版进行。结果：在完成问卷的500名参与者中，204名（40.8%）为男性，296名（59.2%）为女性。结果显示，47名参与者（9.4%）对眼捐赠有优秀的知识（得分>6），355名参与者（71%）有良好的知识（得分4 - 6），98名参与者（19.6%）对眼捐赠的知识较差（得分<4）。只有245名参与者（49%）愿意捐赠眼睛。结论：有必要在医学和护理专业学生中传授关于眼捐赠的知识并改变他们的态度，因为他们将在教育和激励潜在捐赠者进行眼捐赠方面发挥主要作用。还需要开展大众教育和提高认识项目，以鼓励以家庭为单位的态度，因为许多参与者因缺乏家庭支持而对捐赠犹豫不决。
