International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | August 2021 | Vol 8 | Issue 8 Page 4019 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Jha T et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2021 Aug;8(8):4019-4023 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Effectiveness of eye donation orientation session in bridging the knowledge gap amongst undergraduate medical students in Delhi Tanvi Jha 1 *, Vaishali Adlakha 1 , Aakriti Arora 1 , Vaishnavi Jayaram 1 , Nikita Mary Mundakel 1 , Damodar Bachani 2 INTRODUCTION Corneal diseases comprise a significant cause of blindness in the developing world, including India. According to the WHO, corneal blindness follows cataract, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration as main causes of vision loss and blindness. 1,2 It may not be possible to cure all cases of blindness, though many of them are avoidable. In many instances, corneal blindness is curable by keratoplasty. 3 The demand for corneal transplantation is much higher than number of corneas donated annually. According to eye bank association of India, 11 lakh people in India are awaiting corneal transplantation. 4 As against this, 59,810 eyes were donated in India during 2015-16, falling well short of the demand. 5 Further, less than 50% of donated eyes are found suitable for transplantation. 6 The barriers to corneal transplantation include low levels of eye donation, cornea retrieval and its utilization. ABSTRACT Background: Corneal blindness may be curable by keratoplasty but the demand for eye donation is, however, unmet due to a variety of factors including knowledge gap. The purpose of this study was to assess the awareness of the medical undergraduate students towards eye donation and to assess the effectiveness of an orientation program in bridging the knowledge gap. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study done on MBBS students of 2nd and 3rd professional years. A pretested questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge of medical students. Knowledge regarding the contraindications to eye donation, the procedure involved and common misconceptions were assessed. This was followed by a session on orientation regarding eye donation. A second assessment using the same questionnaire was done after the session to assess the effectiveness of the same. The data was analysed using EPIINFO version 3.5.4 using Chi square test. Results: Less than 50% students were aware of contraindications and less than 10% students knew ideal cornea harvesting time and nearest eye bank to their homes. Less than one-fourth students knew common causes of corneal blindness. However, most (77%) students were aware that hospital staff must motivate deceased’s family for eye donation. Significant increase in awareness was observed post orientation regarding most issues. Conclusions: This study shows that there is a knowledge gap amongst undergraduate medical students regarding eye donation. It also suggests that orientation sessions may be helpful in bridging this gap. Keywords: Keratoplasty, Knowledge gap, Orientation, Medical students 1 Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, India 2 Department of Community Medicine, Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, India Received: 08 June 2021 Revised: 14 July 2021 Accepted: 15 July 2021 *Correspondence: Dr. Tanvi Jha, E-mail: drtanvijha93@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20213038