Awareness, knowledge and willingness about eye donation among first year medical and nursing students of a medical and nursing college of north Kolkata, India

Purpose: To study the awareness, knowledge and willingness about eye donation among first year medical (MBBS) students and first year General Nursing and midwifery (GNM) & first year BSc nursing students. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study by a semi-structured questionnaire undertaken in August 2019 among 106 first year MBBS students of a medical college of north Kolkata, eastern India, 40 first year GNM nursing students & 45 first year BSc nursing students of a nursing college situated within the premises of that medical college. Results: All the 191 students were aware about eye donation. Among them 143 students (74.87%) were willing to donate their eyes. Eighty nine (84%) medical students, 40 (100%) GNM nursing students and 43 (95.6%) BSc nursing students knew the ideal time of eye donation (p=0.005). Seventy five (70.8%) medical students, 39 (97.5%) GNM nursing students and 30 (66.7%) BSc nursing students were aware that cornea of the donor eye is used after eye collection (p= 0.001). On multiple regression analysis the willingness to donate eyes was significantly high among GNM students (OR 3.862; 95% CI: 1.262 to 11.817, p= .018) who acquired their knowledge mostly from the class lectures (27; 67.5%). Conclusion: Despite this high level of awareness and willingness there is a lacuna of knowledge regarding whom and how to approach for eye donation. Intense propaganda by observance of World Sight Day & National Eye Donation Fortnight in India and laying stress on Hospital Cornea Recovery Programs (HCRP) could improve the situation.