Effect of Refractive Error on Color Vision

Abstract

Purpose: Prevalance of refractive error is increasing and without correct color perception everyday tasks such as matching or distinguishing color is a challenge. The aim is to determine the effect of refractive error on the color matching of red, green and blue appearing surfaces and how this color matching changes with refractive correction with glasses. Method: In this interventional single center study, 127 medical students from Bahcesehir University were enrolled. In a well-lit room (4794 lumen), an A4 paper sized color was placed on a tripod 4 meters away from the participant. They were asked to match the shown color to the scale. The scale consisted of five shades of three main colors (red, green, blue). Answers were categorized as correct or false. Categorical independent data were analyzed with Chi-square tests and for categorical paired data, McNemar tests were used. Results: 127 students consisted of sixty-four males (Mean: 19.70 ± 1.136) and sixty-three (Mean: 19.49 ± 0.965) females. 60 participants had refractive error and 67 participants had healthy vision. When emmetropes were compared to participants with refractive error, for only red color, emmetropes had significantly lower error rates (9%) compared to participants with refractive error (25%) (p=0.015). 60 participants with refractive error had lowered error rates in red (14%), green (10%) and blue (20%) color after correction. The decreases in error rates were not significant except blue was insignificant on the edge. P values for red, green and blue respectively are p=0.096, p=0.286 and p=0.050. Conclusion:The study found that refractive error negatively effects color perception and correcting the underlying health problem decreases the error rate in color perception.