Colour vision abnormalities among medical students

Introduction: This study was conducted to analyse the colour vision abnormalities among medical students. Materials and Method: In this cross-sectional study, 225 undergraduate medical students in the age group of 19-25 years (21.54±1.40)were screened for colour vision deficiency using Ishihara‘s Pseudoisochromatic chart 24 plate edition. Students with defective colour vision were identified and further classified according to its types. The data collected was entered and analysed using SAS 9.2, SPSS 15, Stata 10.1, MedCalc 9.0.1, Systat 12.0 and R environment ver.2.11.1. Results: After careful screening it was noted that, out of the 225 students, colour blindness was seen in 7 students(3%) including 6 males and 1 female. Among them, Deuteranomaly was detected in 4 males and Protanomaly in 2 male students and 1 female student. Conclusion: Present study shows higher prevalence of colour blindness in males than females which is similar to the previous studies done. CVD commonly remains undetected and hence students of health sciences must be screened for colour vision deficiency and made aware of their defect, so that they can take special care in clinical practice.