A comparison of red-green color vision deficiency between medical and non-medical students in Pakistan.

OBJECTIVES To investigate the prevalence of red-green color vision deficiency (CVD) among medical and dental students compared with non-medical students. METHODS This descriptive, cross-sectional study compared the prevalence of CVD between medical and non-medical Pakistani students. A total of 926 medical and dental students from Baqai Medical University, Karachi, Pakistan were compared with 7288 non-medical students from Nadirshaw Edulji Dinshaw University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan, and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Public Schools (Muree and Sargodha), Pakistan. Standard Ishihara color vision charts were used, which provided an accurate assessment of CVD. More than 3 mistakes from plates 10-17 identified students as having red green CVD. The study was carried out from September 2003 to December 2008. RESULTS The overall prevalence of CVD in the study population was 2.75%. They were no significant differences between male students in engineering college versus medical college (2.7% versus 4.4%, p=0.125), or between schools and universities (3.1% versus 3.1%, p=0.930). CONCLUSIONS A small proportion of the Pakistani population suffers from red-green CVD, more prominent in males. We found no differences between students in engineering college versus medical college, or between schools and universities in different geographical locations within Pakistan.