Prevalence of red- green colour blindness in Nineveh governorate

Abstract

Objective:To study the prevalence of red-green colour blindness among students; staff members and others working in Mosul college of medicine. Method: This cross sectional study was performed in Mosul college of medicine during the period from March 2007-March 2008. One thousand fifty five (1055) persons of both sexes were interviewed to Ishihara colour test which is the most often used to diagnose Red-Green colour blindness. The participants were college students , staff members and clercks of college . Results: Fifty four showed (5.1%) men and 0.37% women had red-green colour blindness. It was seen that 176 persons from the total sample (1055) had refractive error; only one person (0.56%) out of these 176 showed Red-Green colour blindness. Conclusion: The present study showed that colour blindness is a not uncommon problem among people and with the advance of modern life it is getting a source of difficulties and despair with distinguishing colours, example traffic lights , work on computer , … ect. Our ambition is to carry out more detailed studies for which the present study may open the door for more collaborative studies with other departments specially psychological in order to lessen such problem facing coulor blind people.