JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY MEDICINE

INDIAN ASSOCIATION OF PREVENTIVE AND SOCIAL MEDICINE ORISSA CHAPTER
Text Box: Short Article

* Lecturer, ** Assistant Professor, *** Associate Professor, **** Professor

 

Department of Community Medicine & Ophthalmology

M.K.C.G. Medical College, Brahmapur

P. Jena, D. Jena, J. Dora, R.M. Tripathy, T. Sahu

Introduction

Corneal diseases constitute a significant cause of visual impairment and blindness in the development in the developing world1,2. India has rural population of 148 million of whom approximately 91,000 people are blind due to corneal problems3. Corneal transplantation offers the potential for sight restoration to those who are blind for corneal diseases4. Despite the fact that corneal transplantation is the most successful of all organ transplantations, current corneal procurement rates are inadequate to meet the transplantation need of India5. Current annual procurement of eyes for donation in India remains at approximately 1/10th of annual requirement (data from eye bank association of India). Knowledge on the use of donated eyes was very poor despite reasonable awareness campaign of eye donations6. It is estimated that a significant proportion of donor corneas are unsuitable for corneal transplantation5. This indicates the gross inadequacy of media publicity of the entire cycle of eye donation in this population3. Medical students of the first year are the future health care providers for the community. They are from different types of educational background with scientific base and have inherent inclination to serve the mankind. Also they are in pre-exposure phase to Ophthalmology clinic. With this background they were taken for study with the objective of assessing their knowledge and attitude on eye donation.

 

Material and Methods

A cross-sectional study was carried out with the help of a scientifically designed pre-tested questionnaire, in the department of Community Medicine. There were 107 students in 1st year MBBS out of whom 102 students who attended the Community Medicine class were taken as study subjects in a single setting in the month of August 2005.

 

Results and discussion

Among these students majority were (81) boys. Their knowledge on timing of eye collection, who is supposed to give consent and which institution has to be contacted in this regard were assessed.

 

TABLE 1. Knowledge of students about eye donation (n=102)

 

Knowledge                                           No.                    Percentage

 

Time of collection

> 6 hours after death                         7                        6.80

< 6 hours after death                         92                      90.00

Immediately after death                    3                        2.90

Person giving consent

Donor himself                                       89                      87.7

Relative before death                        5                        4.9

Relative after death                             45                      44.00

 

Institution to be contacted

Eye bank                                                85                      83.6

Dep’t of Eye (college)                        69                      67.6

Any health facility                                13                      12.7

 

All of them were aware about organ transplantation. It was known to all of them that eye can be donated after death. Also it was revealed from the study that all of them were in favor of eye donation. It revealed a better picture than the study conducted by Priyadarsini et al where awareness about organ transplantation was 50 percent4. twenty percent of them knew about corneal transplantation4. Only 4.3% knew where to contact for eye donation and 34% of them knew when to donate eye. Similar observation was made in study conducted by Sarkar et al, where 40% undecided about donating their eyes7.

 

Television was the main source of knowledge (81.3%), followed by sources like relatives and friends (24.5%) and articles (13.7%). It is comparable to the study of Krishnaya et al. where mass media was reported by 79.2% as source of knowledge and family members or relatives by 19% subjects7.

 

When knowledge about time of collection was probed, correct answer was given by 90% of students and it was more than Sarkar’s study where it was 37 percent7. Seven percent of our study group had wrong idea of more than 6 hours as the time for eye collection. However 2.9% had preferred the time immediately after death. On assessing the knowledge on giving consent, 89*87.7%) mentioned donor as the right person to give consent i.e. pledging. Relatives of the donor can given consent before death was told by 5(4.9%) and after death by 45(44%). Regarding knowledge on institution to be contacted for eye donation, 85(83.6%) mentioned eye bank, 69(67.7%) could tell it may be ophthalmology department of medical college. But all of them mentioned health institution has to be contacted. Sarkar et al observed 1/3rd of study group did not know where to contact for eye donation7.

 

TABLE-II Cause of their positive attitude for eye donation

 

Cause                                                    Number          Percentage

Helping the blind                                 55                      53.9

As a noble work                                   47                      46

To get popularity                                  2                        1.9

To set an example                              23                      22.5

 

From the above table it was revealed that the cause of their positive attitude for eye donation as for helping the blind viewed by 53.9%, as a noble work by 46 percent. However, 1.9% of the students told it to be popular.

 

Conclusion

Total 102 first year medical students were studied for their knowledge and attitude on eye donation. On analyzing the findings it was observed that all were aware of eye donation with a favorable attitude towards it. Majority had correct knowledge on time of collection of eye, person and place to be contacted for eye donation. However some of them were ignorant about the different aspects of eye donation. The knowledge should be adequate and favourable attitude should be universal. More emphasis should be give on eye donation and Eye banking in undergraduate course. So that they will play a pivotal role in eye donation movement in our country and Hospital Corneal Retrieval Program (HCRP0 will be successful by active involvement of medical students from the undergraduate curriculum.

 

Reference

1. Rao G.N. et al. N What is eye banking IJO 1996, 44 : 1-2.

2. Thylefors. B.Negrel AD, Parajasegraram r, Dadzieky, global data on blindness Bulletin WHO 1995 73, 115-21.

3. Dandona. L, Dandona R, Srinivas M, Giridhar P, Vilas K, Prasad M N / et al, Blindness in Indian State of AP. Invest opthalmol Vis Sci 2001 : 42 908-16.

4. Priyadarsini Brinda, Muthiah, Srinivasan MS, Alagarsamy Padmabati, Sethuraman, Silvam, Ramasambhu et al. awareness of eye donation in adult population of southern India a pilot study IJO, Vol-51, No-1: 101-103.

5. Dandona R, Dandona L, Naduvilath. T.J., Mc Carty CA. Rao GN. Awareness of eye donation in an urban population in India, Aust, NZJ. Opthalmology 1999, 27: 166-69.

6. Sannapaneni Krishanaiah, Vilas Kovai, Rishita Nutheti, Brinda ganavale R: Awareness of eye donation in rural population of India IJO 52, 1, 75-77.

7. Dr. Krishnendu Sarkar et al 64th AIOC 2006, Kolkata.

 

A STUDY ON KNOWLEDGE OF FIRST YEAR MEDICAL STUDENTS