Prevalence of color vision deficiency among school children in Wolkite, Southern Ethiopia

OBJECTIVE: Colour vision deficiency is the commonest disorders of vision and undiagnosed colour vision defect could pose a handicap to the performance of an affected student. The prevalence of colour blindness varies in different geographical area and ethnicity. Hence, a cross sectional study was conducted among school children in Gurage Zone, Southern Ethiopia from April 15 to June 20, 2018. Socio-demographic data was collected on a face to face interview using structured questionnaire. All study participants underwent color vision evaluation using Ishihara’s pseudo isochromatic test 38 plate editions. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 23. RESULTS: A total of 844 (471 boys and 373 girls) school children were screened for colour vision. The overall prevalence of colour vision deficiency was 4.1%, comprised of 3.6% in boys and 0.6% in girls. Out of 35 color blind subjects, 15 (42.9%) and 20 (57.1%) were the victims of protan and deutan defects respectively. Majority of the colour blind subjects were not aware of their colour vision status. Hence, the study concluded that the prevalence of colour vision deficiency in our study is significant and colour vision screening among school should be performed.