Background:Low awareness of common pediatric eye conditions,such as amblyopia,conjunctivitis,and myopia in rural Chiang Rai,Thailand,prompted the development of a specialized curriculum.This curriculum aimed to provide individuals serving these areas with resources to educate and disseminate information within their communities.Methods:A one-hour curriculum covering the causes,signs,diagnosis,treatment,and prevention of amblyopia,conjunctivitis,and myopia was delivered virtually to public health students at a Thai university and in-person to students at this university and rural community members.The in-person seminar included hands-on activities and simulations of these eye conditions.Knowledge acquisition and retention were assessed using pre-tests,immediate post-tests,and one-month post-tests.Results:The seminar was attended by 87 virtual public health students,111 in-person public health students,and 40 in-person rural community members.All groups showed significant improvement in test scores from pre-test to immediate post-test(P＜0.001).In-person students had 1.57 times the odds of answering correctly on the immediate post-test compared to virtual students,despite no significant difference in baseline knowledge.However,the subset of in-person students who did not receive bilingual materials showed no significant difference in immediate post-test performance compared to virtual students(P＞0.05).Although public health students had more than twice the odds of answering correctly at pre-test compared to rural community members,there were no significant differences between groups on the immediate post-test(P＞0.05).Conclusion:A brief seminar significantly improved understanding and retention of pediatric eye conditions,achieving similar levels of understanding among public health students and rural community members,regard-less of initial knowledge on this topic.In-person,hands-on seminars with educational materials in participants'preferred language proved more effective than virtual ones in achieving these improvements.

Background:Low awareness of common pediatric eye conditions,such as amblyopia,conjunctivitis,and myopia in rural Chiang Rai,Thailand,prompted the development of a specialized curriculum.This curriculum aimed to provide individuals serving these areas with resources to educate and disseminate information within their communities.Methods:A one-hour curriculum covering the causes,signs,diagnosis,treatment,and prevention of amblyopia,conjunctivitis,and myopia was delivered virtually to public health students at a Thai university and in-person to students at this university and rural community members.The in-person seminar included hands-on activities and simulations of these eye conditions.Knowledge acquisition and retention were assessed using pre-tests,immediate post-tests,and one-month post-tests.Results:The seminar was attended by 87 virtual public health students,111 in-person public health students,and 40 in-person rural community members.All groups showed significant improvement in test scores from pre-test to immediate post-test(P＜0.001).In-person students had 1.57 times the odds of answering correctly on the immediate post-test compared to virtual students,despite no significant difference in baseline knowledge.However,the subset of in-person students who did not receive bilingual materials showed no significant difference in immediate post-test performance compared to virtual students(P＞0.05).Although public health students had more than twice the odds of answering correctly at pre-test compared to rural community members,there were no significant differences between groups on the immediate post-test(P＞0.05).Conclusion:A brief seminar significantly improved understanding and retention of pediatric eye conditions,achieving similar levels of understanding among public health students and rural community members,regard-less of initial knowledge on this topic.In-person,hands-on seminars with educational materials in participants'preferred language proved more effective than virtual ones in achieving these improvements.