COLOR-VISION BLINDNESS AND COLOR DISCRIMINATION NORMS AMONG JORDANIANS

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of congenital color blindness and color discrimination parameters of otherwise normal Jordanians. De sign: Ishihara isochromatic plates were used to screen for prevalence of color vision blindness and Famsworth-Munsell 100-hue color vision t est for color discrimination parameters. Conditions: One examiner was used to carry out the test for all subjects in the sample in standardi zed lighting conditions. Subjects: Six hundred and ten subjects with n ormal visual acuity were randomly chosen for various age groups of bot h sexes. Result: Total of 27 congenital color blind individuals were f ound, (24 of 329 males or 7.3%; and 3 of 281 females or 1%). The peak for best color discrimination was in the second half of the second dec ade of life, with a statistically significant difference between sexes in older age groups. Conclusion: The figures for the prevalence of co ngenital color vision blindness in Jordanians is comparable to the pub lished figures, but those for color discrimination showed a deviation from figures reported in the literature.