Dear Editor, Glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide and remains a major public health concern because of its chronic, progressive, and often asymptomatic course in the early stages.1 Recent studies from India, including rural populations, continue to highlight the substantial burden of glaucoma and emphasize the importance of early detection and sustained disease awareness among healthcare providers.2,3 In parallel, eye donation remains a critical strategy for addressing corneal blindness; however, the demand for donor corneas continues to exceed supply due to persistent gaps in awareness and sociocultural barriers.4 Medical students represent an important target group for awareness-building initiatives, as they are future physicians who will play a pivotal role in early glaucoma detection and in counseling patients and families regarding eye donation.5 Although awareness of glaucoma and eye donation has been evaluated independently in previous studies, direct comparison of these two ophthalmic domains within the same cohort of undergraduate medical students remains limited. We conducted a cross-sectional, quiz-based assessment among final-year MBBS students who had completed their ophthalmology clinical posting at a tertiary teaching institution. Awareness of glaucoma and eye donation was assessed using two structured multiple-choice questionnaires, each consisting of 40 questions. Only students who completed both quizzes were included to allow paired comparison of awareness scores. A total of 159 students were analyzed, and the demographic profile of participants is summarized in Table 1.Table 1: Demographic profile of study participants (n=159)Median awareness scores for glaucoma and eye donation were comparable, with no statistically significant difference between the two domains Table 2. Overall, the majority of students demonstrated good awareness in both areas.Table 2: Comparison of awareness scores for glaucoma and eye donation among final-year MBBS studentsRecent publications in the Journal of Clinical Ophthalmology and Research have underscored the need to strengthen ophthalmic education to improve early glaucoma detection and public health outcomes.2 Darade et al. reported good overall awareness of eye donation among medical students, although certain gaps persisted in practical aspects and advocacy-related attitudes.5 The comparable awareness levels observed in the present study suggest balanced undergraduate exposure to both disease-oriented and public health-oriented ophthalmology topics. Nevertheless, the observed inter-individual variability in awareness scores indicates the need for targeted educational reinforcement rather than reliance on aggregate performance measures alone. What is already known: Awareness of glaucoma and eye donation is generally low in the general population, while undergraduate medical students tend to demonstrate relatively higher theoretical knowledge. What this study adds: Using a paired, quiz-based approach, this study demonstrates that final-year MBBS students have high and comparable awareness of both glaucoma and eye donation within the same cohort, reflecting balanced undergraduate teaching of clinical and public health aspects of ophthalmology. The variability in individual scores highlights the need for focused educational reinforcement. Data availability statement The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.
Leena Sekar (Wed,) studied this question.