Awareness And Knowledge on Eye Donation Among Students at Bhopal
Keywords:
eye donation, students, medical, paramedical, corneal transplantationAbstract
Background: Visual rehabilitation by corneal transplantation remains the only treatment option for restoring sight in those who have corneal blindness. The requirement of donated corneas per year is 20 times the current procurement. As future health care providers the medical, paramedical and nursing students can significantly enhance the rate of eye donation by motivating patients and relatives for this noble cause.
Objectives: To study the awareness and knowledge of medical, paramedical and nursing students towards eye donation.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a pre-structured, pre-tested questionnaire to solicit information from medical, nursing and paramedical students of People’s University at Bhopal.
Results: Out of 400 students who participated in this study, 98% were aware about eye donation but less than half of them (46.75%) were willing to donate their eyes. Most of the students (94%) did not know about any eye bank in India and only 39.7% of students knew that eye should removed within 6 hours of death. Knowledge of the fact that cornea is removed and grafted was found in 48.5% of them. A remarkable number of students (68.5%) felt it necessary to obtain the consent of family members before pledging eyes. The medical, paramedical and nursing students differed significantly in their knowledge.
Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that although awareness regarding eye donation is high, there is lack of knowledge and motivation related to eye donation.
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