Prevalence of Red-Green Color Vision Defects among Muslim Males and Females of Manipur, India

BACKGROUND: Color blindness is a common X-linked genetic disorder. However, most of color blinds remain undetected due to absence of proper screening. Our study was to determine the prevalence of red-green color vision defects among Manipuri Muslim males and females. The study could help in decreasing birth of children with this disorder as Muslims commonly perform consanguineous marriage among themselves. METHODS: Unrelated individuals of both sexes (Male-1352, Female-1302) belonging to six different populations were randomly selected and screened for red-green color vision defects using the Ishihara (pseudo-isochromatic plates) test from the area of Imphal East and Imphal west districts of Manipur, which is a small hilly state, situated in the north eastern extreme corner of India sharing an international boundary with Myanmar (Burma). RESULTS: About 8.73% of males and 1.69% of females were found to be color blind. Among six different populations studied the males of Meitei population shows the highest frequency i.e. 14.93% while Naga population shows the least frequency of 3.75%. Among females, Meitei population again shows the highest frequency of 2.5% and least frequency is shown by Mughal and Naga populations 0.00% as not a single female color blind was found. CONCLUSION: Present study shows higher prevalence rate of color blindness as compared to other reported rates of India. Deuteranomaly cases occur in higher percentage than other types of color blindness. The higher prevalence rate observed in Muslims may be due to the hidden effect of consanguineous marriages.