Prevalence of inherited color vision deficiency among male school teenagers in Nablus, Palestine

Abstract

AIM: To find out the prevalence of inherited color vision deficiency (CVD) among Palestinian male-school children aged 14-18 and compare it with other eastern and western countries. METHODS: Six hundred and thirty-four male subjects (n=634) aged 14-18 from Palestinian Governorate of Nablus were randomly selected and screened using Ishihara pseudoisochromatic plates. Subjects who failed Ishihara screening were tested further with computer software of Farnsworth-Munsell 100 Hue test. RESULTS: Out of the 634 male participants, 597 were included in the study and 8.0% of them (48 males) demonstrated red-green CVD. 5.4%, 2.3% and 0.3% of the 48 males exhibited deutan, protan and total color vision deficiency (monochromacy), respectively. CONCLUSION: The results show that the prevalence of red-green CVD among the male school children from Palestinian Governorate of Nablus is not significantly different from that of male populations in nearby and Western countries.