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Updated: Oct 24, 2025
Corneal Donor Tissue Preparation for Endothelial Keratoplasty
Published on: June 12, 2012
Awareness and Attitudes Toward Cornea Donation in a Turkish Population: A Web-Based Survey
Feride Tuncer Orhan1, Eray Atalay, Onur Özalp
1From the Department of Ophtalmology, Eskisehir City Hospital, Eskisehir, Turkey.
Objectives:
With low supply and high demand for donor corneas, we surveyed Turkish participants on level of knowledge, awareness, and willingness toward cornea donation.
Materials And Methods:
Our prepared internet-based questionnaire on awareness and attitudes toward cornea donation was structured into 6 parts (parts 1-2 examined socio-demographic data and existing chronic eye diseases, parts 3-4 evaluated level of knowledge on cornea donation and willingness to donate, parts 5-6 questioned whether level of cornea donation was sufficient within the country). For univariate analyses, the chi-square test (Fisher exact where appropriate) was used. We used stepwise logistic regression analyses to evaluate factors associated with willingness to donate (α = 0.05).
Results:
Of 2301 surveyed participants, 980 (42.6%) claimed to have knowledge on cornea donation/ - transplantation, with 1297 (56.4%) having willingness toward donation. Bachelor level or higher education (odds ratio = 1.33, 95% CI, 1.10-1.61; P = .004); being a health care professional (odds ratio = 1.55, 95% CI, 1.21-1.97; P = .001), university student (odds ratio = 1.53, 95% CI, 1.25-1.87; P < .001), or artist professional (odds ratio = 5.25, 95% CI, 1.12-24.6; P = .05); presence of chronic eye disease (odds ratio = 1.22, 95% CI, 1.03-1.45; P = .02); and self-reported awareness of donation/transplantation (odds ratio = 2.14, 95% CI, 1.78-2.58; P < .001) were independently associated with willingness to donate. The major disclosed reason for unwillingness was "lack of knowledge" (48.5%, n = 269); the 2 most common self-perceived reasons for negative public attitudes toward cornea donation were "lack of knowledge" (84.8%, n = 1948) and "religious and cultural reasons" (55.8%, n = 1283).
Conclusions:
Associations between both higher education and self-reported knowledge and willingness to donate are testaments that community education can help alleviate unrealistic concerns and prejudices toward cornea donation and hence improve availability of donor corneas.
