A study about the awareness of medical college students about donating corneal tissue after death

Introduction: Therefore, in order to avoid unethical practices, medical ethical guidelines were developed by several groups of experts, the most important of which were The WHO Transplantation Principles and the Barcelona Principles of the Global Alliance of Eye Bank Societies. It is crucial for medical students to have knowledge around the donation of corneal tissue and the laws that bind it. Methods: : A questionnaire was developed by the research team for the purpose of this study. The questionnaire was initially designed by a focus group consisting of a group of practicing optometrists and public health researchers. Data was analyzed using spss21.0 software version (IBM Corporation, Armoc, New York, USA). Descriptive statistics were calculated, including frequencies and percentages, to summarize categorical data Results: : The questionnaire was completed by 1500 participants among which 416 were males and 1084 were females. Conclusion: This study emphasized the need to implement educational programs to raise awareness of corneal donation and to encourage official registration of willing donors, which may reduce misunderstandings related to donation and increase the supply of tissues for local donors.