Eye Donation Willingness among Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Awareness and Educational Exposure
Devansh Y. Pardhi, Deepa AjitkumarAbstract
Introduction:
Corneal blindness remains a major public health challenge. Medical graduates as future healthcare providers, play a crucial role in promoting eye donation. Understanding their knowledge, attitudes and willingness to donate may identify educational needs.
Aim:
To assess awareness, attitudes, practices and factors associated with willingness to donate eyes among undergraduate medical students.
Materials and Methods:
A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 122 medical students from first to third year. A structured 25-item questionnaire developed from previous literature, reviewed for content validity by faculty members, and pilot- tested for clarity and feasibility was administered through Google Forms. Participation was voluntary. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests were used for categorical variables. Binary logistic regression was performed using age, gender, year of study, residence, hospital eye-bank awareness and awareness-programme attendance as predictors.
Results:
All 122 respondents were included in descriptive analysis. The mean age of respondents was 20 years; 54.1% were male and 82.8% resided in urban areas. Sixty-five (53.3%) reported high willingness to donate (Likert score 4 or 5), while 57 (46.7%) scored 1–3. Ten students (8.2%) had already pledged to donate their eyes. Awareness of hospital eye bank was present in 44 (36.1%) students and 48 (39.3%) had attended an eye donation awareness programme. None of the included predictors reached statistical significance: age (aOR 1.03, 95%CI 0.68-1.54;
Conclusion:
More than half of the surveyed students expressed high willingness to donate their eyes, but the actual pledging was less. Awareness of the institutional eye bank and previous attendance at an awareness programme were associated with higher adjusted odds of willingness to donate; however, neither association reached statistical significance. Educational interventions may help address the gap between willingness and actual pledging.