Assessing intentions to donate corneal tissue using the theory of planned behavior among health workers in selected health facilities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract Background Organ/tissue donation and transplantation has been one of the successes of modern medicine.In Ethiopia, a considerable number of people lose their sight due to damage to their cornea. Despite the high demand, only a few people pledge their corneal tissue when they die.Health workers could play an exemplary role in motivating the general public toward the donation of corneal tissue.However, there is limited information about their attitude and intention toward corneal donation. This study aims to assess the intention of health workers toward corneal tissue donation using the Theory of Planned Behavior which is a robust model for predicting intentions toward behavior. Method: We conducted an institution based cross-sectional study among 595 health care workers selected randomly using a multistage sampling method in Addis Ababa.Data were collected using an anonymous self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistics was used to assess the demographic information with correlation and regression analysis to identify factors influencing health workers’ intention todonate corneal tissue in A.A, Ethiopia. Result: With a response rate of 94%, the median age of the respondents was 29 years SD (+5.45).A total of 311(52.3%), 417 (70.1%) and 304 (51.1%) were male, Orthodox Christians and never married respectively. Health workers had a neutral intention to donate their corneal tissue with a mean intention score of 9.07 (range: 3-15).The TPB explained 61.2% of the variation in the intention to donate corneal tissue among health workers. Perceived behavioral control (PBC) was found to be the strongest predictor of intention to donate corneal tissue (β= 0.411: CI (0.387, 0.580), with attitude (β= 0.234: CI (0.124, 0.219) and subjective norm (β= 0.136: CI (0.078, 0.250) being the second and third strongest predictors respectively. The partial eta squared values were 53.6%, 36.9% and 37.2% respectively, with respect to the above order. Conclusion: This study suggests that health workers did not decide to donate their corneal tissue upon death. Real inhibiting and facilitating factors that affect organ donation have more influence on health workers’ intention to donate their corneal tissue than their perception about corneal donation and the perceived social pressure on them to donate their corneal tissue. On the other hand previous experience was a strong predictor of intention where those who had Previous experiences of organ donation were intending to donate corneal tissue upon death.