Knowledge and attitude regarding eye donation among first year postgraduate students in a tertiary care hospital in Haryana, India.

• Jyoti Deswal,*  
• Rajender Singh Chauhan,  
• Ashok Rathi,  
• Khushboo Sheoran,  
• Nidhi Sharma

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the knowledge and attitude regarding eye donation among first year postgraduate medical students who got admission in the year 2022 in a tertiary care hospital in Haryana. Methods: The data was collected by online questionnaire method (Google forms) from first year postgraduate medical students who got admission in the year 2022. The questionnaire comprised of 20 questions covering various aspects of eye donation. Results: Among 115 students who responded, mean age was 26.39 years (range 24 – 44 years), and 40.9% (47/115) were males and 59.1% (68/115) were females 449 (62.3%). 97.4% (112/115) students had knowledge regarding cornea being the part used for transplantation in eye donation and 77.4% (89/115) students knew the optimal time of eye donation is within 6 hours after time of death. 72.2% (83/115) pledged to donate eyes. Conclusion: The awareness regarding eye donation was good but pledge to donate eye required further motivation. Various strategies can be adopted like emphasising more on eye donation awareness during MBBS and including more competencies related to eye and organ donation in MBBS curriculum.

Keywords

Eye donation, corneal transplantation, visual impairment