DOI: 10.4103/tjosr.tjosr_157_26 ISSN: 2589-4528

Assessment of Baseline Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Regarding Eye Donation and the Impact of Awareness Talks

Deepthi P. Iyer, Malini Prabhugauda, Bhimshetty B. Vineeth, Vinuth Kumar, Patil B. Vijayalaxmi
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Abstract

Purpose:

To evaluate the immediate impact of a single structured awareness talk on knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) regarding eye donation, with signing of a formal pledge card as the practice outcome.

Methods:

In this single-group pre–post interventional study, 463 participants completed a 16-item knowledge questionnaire before an eye-donation awareness talk delivered by four ophthalmologists using identical standardized material. Immediately afterwards, the same knowledge items were re-administered together with three attitude items, and a formal pledge card was offered to every participant. A 14-item knowledge score was analysed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test; individual items using McNemar’s test; and subgroup differences using the chi-square test.

Results:

Participants (mean age 29.0 ± 10.3 years; 65.9% healthcare workers) showed a rise in mean knowledge score from 9.00 ± 2.46 to 11.94 ± 1.99 out of 14 (Wilcoxon p < 0.001; Cohen’s dz = 1.01). Ten of the fourteen knowledge items improved significantly, with the largest gains for knowledge of the nearest eye bank (25.9% to 79.9%), spectacle/cataract-operated donors (35.9% to 85.7%) and site of retrieval (30.9% to 71.1%). After the talk, 92.0% wished to learn more and 92.7% were willing to counsel bereaved relatives. Overall, 291 of 463 participants (62.9%) signed an eye-donation pledge card; pledging was higher among non-healthcare workers than healthcare workers (70.3% vs 59.0%; p = 0.023). Of those expressing intent to pledge, 94.4% signed a card.

Conclusion:

A single standardized awareness talk produced large immediate gains in eye-donation knowledge and translated into a high pledge rate. Brief structured education is a simple, scalable tool to strengthen the donor pool and address the shortage of donor corneas.

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