Awareness of Eye Donation in Population of Central India

Abstract

Corneal problems cause a significant proportion of blindness in India. Once corneal opacity is established, restoration of their vision is possible only through transplantation of cornea from donated eyes. Eye donations are dependent on people willing to pledge their eyes. PURPOSE: To determine "awareness of eye donation" and knowledge regarding eye donation and factors affecting in an adult population of northern India. METHODS: 550 Subjects who accompanied patients attending four ophthalmic clinics were interviewed using structured questionnaire. The information was collected about socio demographic profile, awareness of eye donation, knowledge about its various aspects and pledge to donate eye, reasons for donating or not donating eyes and sources of information. Data analyzed using SPSS software, Chi square test was used to test significance across category and p value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Out 550 subjects 44.2% were in 18-35 years and 55.8 % were >35 yrs old. Majority was Hindu (76.73%) and males (71.64%). 78% subjects were aware of eye donation. The major source of awareness was AV aids (89%). Awareness was found to be high as age and education increases, in males, and in urban population. Significant difference (p<.05) was found between awareness and various variables except religion. 27% knew that relative can make pledge, only cornea is transplanted is known to 25.2%, 44.7% were aware about ideal time of eye removal and only 12 (2.8%) had pledged their eyes. 250(58.3%) subjects were aware but not willing to pledge their eyes or relatives eyes. Need more information to decide (79.2%), perceived objection by family members (52%) and religious reason (38.8%) were cited as major factors for not willing to pledge eyes. Nobility (76%) and pleasure (17.9%) was the main motivational force stated for willingness to donate eyes. CONCLUSION: There is good level of awareness in urban population still very less subjects is willing to pledge eyes major factor being insufficient knowledge. Targeting on aspects in which knowledge was found to be low might help to increase eye donation.

Knowledge, Attitude and Willingness for Eye Donation in General Population of Odisha inEastern India

“…In our observation, 82.9% of participants with higher education were willing to donate their eyes which are significantly lower than participants with lower education status. Similar results were shown in studies done by Ronaki et al, Marathe et al [9,14] No association with education and willingness was noted by Patil et al and Bhandare et al [6,15] ( Table-IV)In the present study 70.6%(103) participants belonging to urban area were willing to donate their eyes,whereas only37% (113) participants from rural area were willing to donate their eyes ,it was similar to the studies done by Priyadarshini et al, Ronaki et al [4,9] Lack of essential knowledge regarding eye donation could be possible barriers for unwillingness to donate eyes. These important issues can be targeted in future campaigns meant to create awareness in eye donation.…”

“…In our study, 40.4 %( 192) knew the ideal time limit of eye donation was within 6 hours of death, which is in accordance with that of Patil et al(36.5%), Marathe et al(44.7%) Tiwari et al, (50%), [6,14,18] whereas it is low in comparison to the observations of Bhandarey et al (88%) , Goerge et al(79.5%) [15,16] .It is important for the general public to be aware of the time limit for eye donation after death,as eyes can not be utilised for optical purpose that are donated after 6 hours of death. (Table-II) 43.1%(195) of our participants thought that eye donation means removal of cornea which is similar to the study done by Ronaki et al(54.9%) .…”

“…64.1 %( 248) malesof all participants were willing to donate their eyes, whereas there is significantly low 43.1 %( 204) willingness to donate eyes among females,which corroborates with that of Priyadashini et al, Patil et al, Ronaki et al,Marathe et al and Shinde et al [4,6,9,14,24] While there is no association found between genders by Srivastav et al [17] Lower willingness among females may be the necessity to seek permission from their family members. In our observation, 82.9% of participants with higher education were willing to donate their eyes which are significantly lower than participants with lower education status.…”

“…The present study highlighted the difference in knowledge,attitude and willingness regarding eye donation with relation to education status, age, gender and locality.In our study 57.9%(262) participants were aware that eyes can be donated after death which is low in comparison to studies done by Ronaki et al(80.3%),Marthe et al(80.3%),Bhandary et al(88%) [9,14,15] ,whereas it is almost similar to the studies conducted by Goerge et al(49%), Shrivastava et al (53.4%) [16,17] . In our study, 40.4 %( 192) knew the ideal time limit of eye donation was within 6 hours of death, which is in accordance with that of Patil et al(36.5%), Marathe et al(44.7%) Tiwari et al, (50%), [6,14,18] whereas it is low in comparison to the observations of Bhandarey et al (88%) , Goerge et al(79.5%) [15,16] .It is important for the general public to be aware of the time limit for eye donation after death,as eyes can not be utilised for optical purpose that are donated after 6 hours of death.…”

Eye donation: awareness and willingness among shopkeepers

“…within 6 hours of death which is in contrast to our study (36.5%) and study done by Marathe (44.7%). 9,10,12,13 Various studies noted that mass media is the main mode of awareness for getting information on eye donation like current study.…”