Abstract
Purpose: The prevalence of red-green color vision defects in India has been reported to range from 2.5% to 7.5% in men and 0.13% to 1.04% in women. The lowest prevalence was found in certain tribal groups. Although one would expect the prevalence to be similar in children, little modern data is available. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of red-green color deficiencies in Indian school children using the Color Vision Test Made Easy (CVTMET).
Methods: Children between the ages of 4 and 9 years were screened at different schools in Mumbai using the CVTMET. Time taken to complete the test was recorded. Of the 1711 children, 33 (ages of 4–5 years) were excluded due to difficulty in interpreting their responses. In the remaining 1678, 1002 were males and 676 were females.
Results: Eighteen males and six females failed the CVTMET. This results in a prevalence in males of 1.8% (95% CI 1.1% to 2.8%) and 0.89% (95% CI 0.4% to 1.9%) in females. Those who failed the CVTMET took significantly more time 215.20 (+102.92) seconds compared to color-normals 120.22 (+66.71) seconds (p<0.001).
Conclusions: The rate in male children was lower than the 3.7% to 7.5% values reported for nontribal urban groups, whereas the female rate fell within the range of previous reports. The low prevalence in males suggests that additional work is required to determine the validity of the CVTMET test and/or to determine the prevalence of red-green defects in the modern Indian society.