Screening for Color Vision Deficiency in Health Science Students

Abstract

Purpose: Various professions require employees to be able to detect different shades of color accurately when visually reading test results with colorimetric end points. To prepare health science students to better meet this requirement, a screening test for color vision deficiency (CVD) was administered to detect any major or minor errors as part of the undergraduate student experience. Method: Screening for color vision deficiency was administered using the Farnsworth D-15 Color Vision Test. Students completed the test and their results were scored and interpreted at the time of completion. Results: Students (n=85) from nine different health science programs completed the Farnsworth D-15 Color Vision Test. Ages of the participants ranged from 18-63 years with 70% of the participants in the age range of 18-23 years. Seventy-one percent of the participants identified as female, 28% identified as males, and 1% identified as non-binary. Two students (one female and one male) had a minor error resulting in a crossover within the test circle on the Gulden test score sheet. There were no major errors identified in the 85 participants. Conclusion: While two minor errors were detected in this population, this data is not consistent with other CVD studies. This most likely is due to screening predominately female students, and/or the amount of time allotted for each individual test to be completed. Future studies will include expanding the participant numbers, with a focus on testing more male participants, limiting the number of minutes to complete the screening process, and collecting additional demographic data.