Eye Donation Awareness among the Students

Abstract

Blindness is a worldwide problem. Corneal blindness accounts for 0.9%of blindness in India. Approximately 0.12 million people are corneal blind. Restoration of their vision is possible only through transplantation. Though 45000 eyes are collected every year, it does not meet half the requirement. Well informed medical students could be expected to enhance eye donation rates. To study the awareness of the patient about the eye donation is assessed. This cross-sectional type of study was conducted in 200 Life sciences students. All the required information was collected on pretested, semi-structured questionnaire. All the students know that eye can be donated. 170 students tell that there is no age limit for eye donation. ‘Eyes can be removed from living peoples’ this answer is told by 185 students. 155 students told that consent of family is not required for the pledging. 170 students told that there is shortage of donors in India. The results of the study indicate that although awareness regarding eye donation is high, there is lack of motivation related to eye donation.