BACKGROUND Glaucoma causes progressive loss of vision and significantly affects the quality of life. In 2019 World Health Organization reported that glaucoma caused blindness in 4.5 million people and is the second most common cause of blindness worldwide. In India, nearly 1.2 million people were blind due to glaucoma of whom 90 percent remain undiagnosed in the community. The aim of this study is to assess the level of glaucoma awareness and to analyse the source of information that created awareness in a rural community. METHODS A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in a village which is an outreach field practice area of our institution in Tamil Nadu, during the month of October 2019. The total study participants were 196 and data was collected by interview method and analysed using SPSS 16v software. RESULTS Among 196 respondents 12.2 % were aware of glaucoma, 85 % were aware that it leads to blindness, 38 % had heard about glaucoma from close acquaintances through word of mouth and 3 had undergone glaucoma evaluation in an outreach camp. CONCLUSIONS This study concludes that awareness of glaucoma among the rural population continues to be poor. Hospital based awareness activity and word of mouth were the major source of information in our study group. Patients with glaucoma had better knowledge and they would play an effective role in creating awareness. Our study shows that the social media and mass media awareness campaign did not reach the rural population. KEYWORDS Glaucoma Awareness, Health Information

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