Awareness and knowledge on eye donation among Allied Health Sciences, medical, and nursing students in Goa

Purpose: to assess the awareness and knowledge on eye donation among students of allied health sciences (ahs), medical, and nursing. methods: a cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted using a standard predesigned and pretested closed-ended structured questionnaire based on eye donation to obtain information about awareness and knowledge from ahs, medical, and nursing students of goa. results: three hundred and forty participants participated in the study. the majority of the participants [97.9% (95% ci: 95.8–99.2)] were aware of the existence of eye donation. mass media (62.9%) was the foremost source of information. however, only 145 [42.6% (95% ci: 37.3–48.1)] participants were willing to donate their eyes. ahs, medical, and nursing students stood apart significantly in their awareness and knowledge. only 60 [17.6% (95% ci: 13.7–22.1)] participants were aware that the whole eye can be removed from the donor while 215 [63.2% (95% ci: 57.9–68.4)] were wrongly aware that the cornea can be removed separately. awareness about eye donation was not associated with willingness to donate eyes. conclusions: although awareness regarding eye donation was satisfactory, there was lack of willingness to donate eyes. there is a need to bridge the gap between eye bank and donors.