Prevalance of color blindness in children.

Background: Many people are affected by color blindness but most of them remain undetected as they simply adapt to the environment to certain extent and some remain unaware of the disease. Objective: To find out the prevalence rate of color blindness in students of ages 6 years to 15 years, in various schools of Jalandhar. Methods: A prospective study was done on 3259 students to identify the prevalence of color blindness. Students were examined with Ishihara Pseudoisochromatic Color Plates 38 edition. If the student was color blind, then it was further classified into its types. The data collected was complied and analyzed to evaluate the prevalence of color blindness, gender wise prevalence and prevalence of types of color blindness. Results: Students of 12 schools were screened in the age group of 6 to 15 years. 3259 students were included in the study; 1683(40.44%) were males and 1584 (59.55%) females. Color blindness was seen in 61 students (1.89%) including 55 (1.69%) males and 6(0.184%) females. Among the color blind 56(91.8 %) were protanopes, 5(8.2 %) were deuteranopes and none were tritanope. Among the protanopes, 52(92.8%) were males and 4 (7.2%) were females and in deuteranopes, percentage of males affected was 4(66.7 %) and females was 2(33.3%). Conclusion: Color blindness affects males more than females in this study similar to previous studies done. Protonopia is more common than deutronopia. Early school screening for color vision defect is recommended.

Prevalence of color-vision deficiency among male high-school students

@#Objective This study determined the prevalence of color-vision deficiency among male high-school students in a public school. Methods Male high-school students were screened for color-vision deficiency using 6 plates of the Ishihara pseudoisochromatic plates. All students with one or more errors were reexamined at a later date with the full 15 Ishihara plates and the Farnsworth D15 (FD15) test. A detailed history was taken and an ocular examination was conducted. Students who identified less than 10 plates correctly on the FD15 were classified as color-deficient and underwent the Farnsworth Munsell 100 hue (FM 100) test. The results were statistically analyzed. Results A total of 1,258 male high-school students, aged 12 to 16 years, were included in the study, 122 of whom failed the screening test. Of these, 106 completed the 15 Ishihara plates. Sixty-five failed and were classified as color-visiondeficient, of which 64 (98%) were deutans. Deutan was also the most common deficiency determined using the FD15 (78.95%) and FM100 (44.19 %) hue tests. Conclusion The prevalence of color-vision deficiency among male students in a public high school was 5.17% (65/1,258). The most common deficiency was the deutan type.