To study awareness and willingness of eye donation among paramedical workers

Context: Current corneal procurement rates are inadequate to meet transplantation needs in India. Thus proper health care education and awareness regarding eye donation is essential. Aims: To study awareness and willingness of eye donation among paramedical workers. Settings and Design: Cross-sectional study design. Materials and Methods: Sixty paramedical workers were asked to answer a pretested semi-structured questionnaire in their own language. Questions were asked pertaining to demographic profile and assessment of awareness about eye donation. Statistical Analysis Used: SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 15.0. Results: The majority (45/60) of the paramedical staff were aware that eyes can be donated after death and 48/60 respondents knew that the ideal time for eye donation was within 6 hours of death. Perceived reasons for not pledging eyes by the paramedical staff included the unacceptable idea of separating the eye from the body causing disfigurement of face (16/60), lack of awareness about the concept of an eye bank where eyes can be preserved (18/60) and religious restrictions (9/60). Conclusion: The paramedical staffs of any hospital are the backbone of the health care system and can play a major role in motivating patients and their next of kin towards eye donation. Our study concluded that even though 83.33% (50/60) of paramedics had some knowledge of eye donation, 15% (9/60) believed it to be against their religious beliefs and 26.66 %( 16/60) respondents believed that it caused disfigurement of face. These beliefs are a major hurdle towards patient motivation for eye donation.Key words: Heidelberg retinal tomography, Optical coherence tomography, optic disc area, optic disc cup area, optic disc rim area, optic cup-disc ratio