Awareness of eye donation in an urban population in India

Purpose: Awareness of eye donation and willingness to pledge eyes for donat ion was assessed in the urban population of Hyderabad, India, where corneal blindness is a significant problem. Methods: A total of 2522 subjects of all ages, representative of the Hydera bad population, participated in the Andhra Pradesh Eye Disease Study. Subje cts >15 years old were interviewed regarding awareness of eye donation and willingness to pledge eyes for donation. Results: Age-gender-adjusted prevalence of awareness of eye donation was 73 .8% (95% CI: 66.5-81.0%) but only 1.9% (95% Ci: 0.16-3.66%) had pledged eye s. With multivariate analysis, significantly less awareness of eye donation was found in illiterate subjects (OR 0.1: 95% CI: 0.1-0.14), subjects grea ter than or equal to 70 years old (OR 0.3; 95% CI: 0.2-0.6), subjects of lo wer socio-economic status (OR 0.4; 95% CI: 0.3-0.6), females (OR 0.6; 95% C I: 0.5-0.8) and Muslims (OR 0.7; 95% CI: 0.6-0.9). Media was the major sour ce of information about eye donation. Of those aware of eye donation, 44.9% were willing to pledge eyes. Willingness to pledge eyes for donation was s ignificantly lower in Muslims (OR 0.18; 95% Ci: 0.13-0.24) than in Hindus a nd in subjects greater than or equal to 60 years old (OR 0.3; 95% CI: 0.2-0 .5). Conclusions: These data show that although only a few had pledged eyes ther e is enough potential in this population for obtaining many more corneas fo r transplantation. The information about distribution and demographic assoc iations of awareness and willingness for eye donation could help in develop ing strategies to increase procurement of corneas for dealing with corneal blindness.