AN INSIGHT INTO AWARENESS ABOUT EYE DONATION AMONG DENTAL STUDENTS OF TERTIARY DENTAL CARE INSTITUTION

*Dr. Vikram Pal Aggarwal, Dr. Anmol Mathur, Dr. Manu Batra, Dr. Nikita Goyal, Dr. Deeksha Gijwani and Dr. Aditi Sharma

ABSTRACT

Purpose: a) To assess the promoting factors for eye donation among dental students. b) To find out perceptions about eye health care among them. Methods: A cross sectional self-reporting questionnaire based study was conducted among 592 dental students in a private dental institution situated in Rajasthan. A detailed proforma containing 24 questions was framed for the purpose of capturing sociodemographic information, questions concerning different aspects of eye health care, eye donation and perceived promoting factors for eye donation. The reliability of the questionnaire was evaluated by cronbach’s coefficient alpha to measure the internal consistency and test-retest method to examine the stability of the questionnaire. The alpha coefficient of 0.7 was considered adequate. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) with 95% confidence interval was used for assessing the reliability. The value of the ICC was 0.70. Results: The most common source of information was from the mass media/ TV/radio/ movies (91.55%). 15.37% dental students were keen to pledge their eyes for donation. However, 39.02% of the dentist did not know whom to approach for pledging their eyes for donation. Donated eyes can give vision to a person was the main motivational force for eye donation among dentists (37.36%). Majority of the respondents (85.98%) opined that blindness can be prevented if awareness is generated upon eye health care. Conclusion: To increase the level of awareness and knowledge of dentist on eye donation, more health education about eye diseases, eye donation and corneal transplantation is needed.

Keywords: Eye donation, corneal transplantation, dental students, awareness.