Knowledge acquisition and retention when implementing public health awareness training on common pediatric eye conditions in Thailand

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, regardless 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.