Abstract
Purpose: To determine the prevalence of congenital red-green colour vision defects among Saudi Arabian male and female children.
Methods: The study involved 1638 elementary and high school participants (838 males, and 800 females), who were randomly selected and screened for red-green colour vision defects using the Ishihara (pseudo-isochromatic plates) test. Inclusion criteria were Snellen VA 20/20 or better and absence of known ocular pathologies.
Results: Out of the 838 male participants, 5.85% demonstrated red-green colour vision deficiency (CVD), with 1.55% and 4.3% of the 49 males exhibiting protan and deutan defects, respectively. Among the females, 0.75% of the 800 participants showed CVD, with 0.25% and 0.5% demonstrating protan and deutan defects, respectively.
Conclusion: The results show that the prevalence of red-green colour deficiency among the female children from central Saudi Arabia is not significantly different from that of female populations in western countries. The current prevalence among the males is higher than previously reported for central Saudi Arabia, but less than for Caucasian populations.