Study to Assess the Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Eye Donation Among Teaching Faculty of Selected Colleges in Hubli, Dharwa

Introduction

Eye is the most beautiful and most significant sensory organ in human body. It accounts for over half of all the sensory perceptions.^1,2 Blindness is defined as loss of ability to see. According to statistics published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2012, India has an estimated 12 million blind people and additional 456 million people who require vision correction. WHO also reported that 80 percent of blindness in India is avoidable; yet visual imparities and blindness remain significant problems.^3,4 Cornea is the outermost layer of the eye - clear and dome shaped. It protects the eye,helps focus the light and refract it so as to ensure clear vision. Cornea also acts like a filter keeping out harmful UV rays. The cornea loses its clarity due to Cataract (62.6%), Refractive Error (19.70%), Corneal Blindness (0.90%), Glaucoma (5.80%), Surgical Complication (1.20%), Posterior Capsular Opacification (0.90%), Posterior Segment Disorder (4.70%), Others (4.19%). The prevalence of childhood blindness is 0.80/1000 as per the national statistics. Corneal blindness can be cured by corneal transplantation. But despite efforts on many fronts, this is not possible in large number of cases.3 According to statistics published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2012, India has an estimated 12 million blind people and additional 456 million people who require vision correction. WHO also reports that 80 per cent of blindness in India is avoidable; yet visual imparities and blindness remain significant problems.4 In the wake of reducing worldwide burden of blindness and visual impairment, WHO along with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) initiated ‘Vision 2020’. The ‘Right to Sight’ program constitutes 120 member NGO groups who work towards eliminating avoidable blindness. This has been achieved through a unique, cross-sector collaboration, which enables public, private and non-profit interests to work together, helping people to see, all over the world. Those who have suffered from serious illness or damage are given a second opportunity through organ donation. There are hundreds of thousands of visually handicapped people in our country. Eye donation can aid in regaining the vision of 10,00,000 people. Donation of eye must be encouraged in a humongous scale which is a reciprocation of social service. The donor continues to exist in the recipient’s sight even after death. Eyes from a dead person can enable four blind people acquire vision.

Objectives

1. To assess the knowledge and attitude regarding eye donation among the teaching faculty.

2. To find the correlation between knowledge and attitude of teaching faculty regarding eye donation.

3. To find the association between knowledge and attitude of teaching faculty regarding eye donation and their selected socio demographic variables.

Methodology

A descriptive study was designed to assess the knowledge and attitude of teaching faculty on eye donation. A total of 100 teaching faculty from various colleges were selected, using probability simple random sampling technique. A structured knowledge questionnaire and modified Likert (attitude) scale were designed to assess the designed objectives. The questionnaire had content validity index of knowledge and attitude scale of 70% and 78% respectively, and the reliability of knowledge and attitude scale was 0.8 and 0.79 respectively. The data was collected for a duration of six months, and revealed the knowledge and attitude levels of the teaching faculty on eye donation. The obtained data was analyzed using SPSS 18.0 version.

Results

The study results showed that majority of teachers 45 (45.00%) belonged to the age group of 30-40 years, 21 (21.00%) belonged to age group 20-30 years, 19 (19.00%) belonged to age group 40-50 years and 15 (15%) belonged to age group 50 years and above. In terms of gender, the maximum number of teachers 67 (67.00%) were males and 33 (33.00%) were females.

Majority of the teachers belonged to Hindu religion 84 (84.00%), 9 (9.00%) belonged to Christian religion, 7 (7.00%) belonged to Muslim religion. Majority of the teachers 50 (50.00%) were postgraduates, 28 (28.00%) were doctorates in their respective subjects, 22 (22.00%) were degree qualified. Regarding the source of information, majority of the teachers 41 (41.00%) received information through mass media, 35 (35.00%) received information from health personnel, and 24 (24.00%) received information from friends/family members.

About 47 (47.00%) teachers had 0-10 years of teaching experience, 35 (35.00%) had 10-20 years of teaching experience, 10 (10.00%) teachers had 20-30 years of teaching experience, and only eight (8.00%) teachers had more than 30 years of teaching experience. Around 86 (86.00%) of the teachers’ family members had never done eye donation and 14 (14.00%) of teachers’ family had done eye donation. This implies the need for bringing awareness about eye donation in community.

The knowledge of teachers regarding eye donation revealed that out of 100 teachers, 70 (70.00%) teachers had average knowledge, 18 (18.00%) teachers had good knowledge and 12 (12.00%) teachers had poor knowledge.

The attitude of teachers on eye donation revealed that 88 (88.00%) had positive attitude and good attitude towards eye donation, and 12 (12.00%) had negative attitude relating to wrong doing after death and non-acceptance of family and community.

Discussion

This descriptive study was designed to assess the knowledge and attitude of teaching staff regarding eye donation and the findings of the study are as follows:  

Findings related to sociodemographic variables

• The present study found that majority of the teaching staff were males (77.00%) compared to females (33.00%). These findings are similar to the findings of the study conducted by Tandon et al. ⁵

• The present study revealed that majority of the teaching staff belonged to Hindu religion (84.00%). These findings are similar to the findings of the study conducted by Shroff et al. ⁶

• Nearly 50.00% of the teaching staff were postgraduates and 22.00% of them completed Doctor of Philosophy; these findings are similar to the findings of Taxon S.⁷

• The present study found that the predominant source of information regarding eye donation was from mass media (41.00%). Similar findings were reported by Gupta A et al. ⁸

Findings related to knowledge and attitude

The present study revealed that 70.00% of teaching staff had avarage knowledge, 18% had good knowledge and 12.00% had poor knowledge regarding eye donation, while 76.00% of teaching staff had favourable attitude & good opinion regarding eye donation, 12.00% had positive attitude and 12.00% demonstrated negative attitude towards eye donation. These findings are similar to those reported by Sander SL et al. ⁹

Findings related to correlation between knowledge and attitude

The present study observed no correlation between knowledge and attitude scores of teaching staff regarding eye donation. The correlation value was -0.006. These findings are similar to the findings of the study conducted by Tandon et al. ⁵

Findings related to association of knowledge and attitude with socidemographic variables

The study found no significant association of knowledge and attitude scores with age, gender, source information, and family history of eye donation. However, a significant association of qualification with knowledge score and religion with attitude score was observed. These findings were similar to the findings of the study conducted by Dandona R et al. ¹⁰

Conclusion

The presetn study results showed a negative correlation between the knowledge and attitude signifying no realtionship in the variables. The study identified no significant association between knowledge scores and sociodemographic variables (age, gender, religion, source of information, years of teaching experience and familial history of eye donation). However, there was an association between knowledge scores and qualification. The present study results revealed that there was no significant association between attitude scores and sociodemographic variables, such as age, gender, qualification, source of information, years of teaching experience and familial history of eye donation, while an association between attitude scores and religion was observed. The study concluded that the knowledge level of the teachers was poor indicating the need for bringing awareness on eye donation and need for stressing the importance of having good attitude towards eye donation and promotion of eye donation.

Recommendations of the study

The following are the recommendations of the study-

1. Similar studies can be conducted in a large polpulation to bring awreness on eye donation.

2. Using evaluatory appraoches, a planned teaching programme can be developed to improve the knowledge on eye donation.

3. Similar studies or comparitive studies can be conducted among other teaching faculties of nursing, medical, paramedical personnel.

Conflict of interest

The present study has no conflict of interest