Knowledge, Attitudes, and Willingness Concerning Cornea Donation Among Medical Students in Lanzhou, Northwest of China.

Background: As the will-be medical staff, medical students take the future responsibilities to propaganda knowledge of cornea donation and exert positive influence on the public. We aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and willingness concerning cornea donation among the medical students in Lanzhou, Northwest of China.

Methods: This study was an observational cross-sectional survey in which a detailed questionnaire was used. Medical students from either Lanzhou University (LZU) or Northwest University for Nationalities (NUN) were approached, and the questionnaire was filled out and submitted online. The sociodemographic profile, the correctness of the knowledge, attitudes toward cornea donation, and suggestions on promotion were categorized and compared. Additionally, determinants influencing knowledge and willingness were revealed by using Logistic Regression.

Results: A total of 1129 students who completed the questionnaire were enrolled in this study. Most of the respondents were aware of the cornea donation (n = 895, 79.3%), but the knowledge was scarce, pertaining to the process to donate (n = 20, 1.8%), the time limit of recovery (n = 152, 13.5%), the preserved period (n = 97, 8.6%), and legislations on the issues (n = 7, 0.6%). Almost all the students expressed positive attitudes toward cornea donation (n = 1106, 98.0%) and supported their relatives or friends to donate (n = 1049, 92.9%); whereas more than half of them showed unwillingness to donate (n = 520, 46.1%). Age (P = .013), race (P < .001), parents' educational background (tertiary: P = .004); and primary: P = .001), siblings (P = .001), family annual income (high: P < .001; and low: P = .001), years of medical education (P < .001), attitude toward cornea donation (P = .019), attitude toward hypothetical relative donation (P < .001), and willingness to donate (P < .001) distinctly influenced the respondents' knowledge in the logistic regression. Likewise, several factors significantly determined the respondents' willingness to donate, including birth place (P = .028), race (P = .041), siblings (P = .023), family annual income (high: P = .008]; low: P = .002; and middle: P = .004), years of medical education (P = .007), attitude toward cornea donation (P = .005), willingness to persuade donation (P < .001), attitude toward hypothetical relative donation (P < .001), and score (P < .001).

Conclusions: The knowledge on cornea donation of the medical students is not satisfied, and their willingness to pledge corneas is relatively low. Several sociodemographic factors could predict the knowledge level and willingness which may be improved by particular curriculums in the future.