Factors affecting the public’s willingness to donate corneas

Abstract

Introduction: If corneal transparency is impaired and all conservative, surgical or other medical treatments have failed, corneal transplantation is the only therapeutic option. When the family knows and is aware of this, both in the case of “opt-in” and in the case of “soft opt-out”, where the family is involved in the decision, the chances of receiving the organ are higher, if there is an adequate post-mortem framework. To achieve this increase in an individual’s willingness to donate organs or corneas, factors that determine/predict this willingness must be explored. Aim: To investigate the factors influencing the willingness to donate
corneas. Materials and methods: One hundred and twenty-nine non-health science professionals/students were reached by the principal investigator from May 2022 to January 2023, and 38 nursing students were reached by the principal investigator at a nursing student conference in November 2022. The data collection method was a self-administered questionnaire with closed-end questions. The questionnaire was printed, a version of it was created in Google Forms, and there were electronic responses as well. Descriptive analysis was performed by calculating the frequencies of sociodemographic and donating characteristics. For inferential statistical analysis, the Monte Carlo method, Chi-Square and Kruskal-Wallis tests, as well as multinomial logistic regression analysis, were used to compare the parameters of the independent variables with attitudes toward corneal donation. Results: The desire of becoming a cornea donor was expressed by 22.3% of the respondents. The multinomial logistic regression analysis was performed with the corneal donation willingness attitudes as the dependent variable (0=”I do not want to become a corneal donor,” 1=”Ihave not decided whether I want to become a corneal donor,” 2=”I do want to become a corneal donor”) and degree of spirituality, respondent type, gender, age, marital status, highest education level, and employment status as the independent variables. The overall model was significant, χ2 (16)=28.84, p<0.025. Comparing the attitudes of “I have not decided whether I want to become a corneal donor” and “I do not want to become a corneal donor”, no statistically significant relationship (p≤0.05) was found with any of the variables in the regression model. Τhe parameter “degree of spirituality” served as a predictive factor (OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.06-1.81, p=0.018) regarding the comparison of “I would like to become a corneal donor” vs. “I would not like to become a corneal donor”. Conclusions: To achieve increase in willingness to donate organs or corneas, the factors that determine/predict this willingness must be explored. In this study, “I want to be a cornea donor” was answered by 22.3% of the population. The current study also found that spirituality was found to predict willingness to donate corneas. These findings suggest that enhancing the public’s willingness to donate corneas would necessitate an expansion in health policy focus. Alongside current guidelines, this should involve engaging theological schools, religious communities, and formal religious bodies in initiatives to encourage organ/corneal donation.