Prevalence of color blindness among school children in three primary schools of Gish –Abay town district, Amhara regional state, north-west Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Although there are limited studies, recent data are lacking to accurately determine the magnitude of color blindness in Ethiopia and there is no evidence of such a study in Gish Abay town district. The purpose of thie study was to assess the prevalence of color blindness among school children in Gish Abaya town district, Ethiopia. METHODS: The study used a community-based analytical cross-sectional study design with multistage cluster random sampling technique from September to October 2016. Three primary schools were selected randomly in the district of Gish Abay town district. Ishihara color plates (24 –edition) was used for color vision test and Snellen’ tumbling ‘E’ chart was used for visual acuity test. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 statistical software and binary logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with color blindness. RESULTS: Among a total of 854 subjects, 850 participants with age range of 8–18 years were screened for color vision test giving a response rate of 99.53%. Among the participants, 452 (53.2%) were males and 398 (46.8%) were females. There were 36 (4.24%) cases of impaired color vision. Among these, 27 (3.18%) were males and 9 (1.06%) were females. Out of 36 cases of color blindness, 15 (1.77%) were deutan, 7 (0.82%) were protan and 14(1.65%) were unclassified (both deutan and protan forms). The variables; sex adjusted odds ratio (AOR [95% Confidence Interval] =3.19 [1.45; 6.98], p-value = 0.004); and visual impairment (AOR [95% CI] =4.15 [1.77; 9.75], p-value = 0.001) were significantly associated with color impairment. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of childhood color blindness in Gish Abay town district was relatively similar with other studies in Ethiopia. Sex and visual impairment are factors found to be related with the children’s color blindness. Periodical eye examination at the time of school admission is recommended to adjust the children’s occupation early in life.