Prevalence of Color Blindness among Students of Secondary Schools in Shahrekord

Abstract

Background and aims: Color blindness is a disease that remains undiagnosed in some cases. Thediagnosis of the disease during schooling is necessary to take the required measures for the future lifeof adolescents. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of color blindnessamong the students of secondary schools in Shahrekord.Methods: In this descriptive study, 4074 students of secondary schools across Shahrekord wereincluded by the cluster sampling method. Ishihara color blindness test plate was used to diagnosecolor blindness. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and percentage) by SPSS 18.Results: In general, 362 (88.8%) patients had color blindness. Out of 2052 male students and 2022female ones, 343 (16.71%) and 19 (0.93%) cases were diagnosed with color blindness, respectively. Inboth genders, most students had deuteranopia or deuteranomalia, while other types of color blindness,including tritanomaly, were not detected in the students.Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the number of color blind people in the studied regionwas higher compared to the results of studies in the other regions of Iran. Moreover, the prevalence ofcolor blindness was more in males compared to females. In addition, the prevalence of other kinds ofcolor blindness mainly belonged to deuteranopia or deuteranomalia.