Congenital Colour Vision Deficiency among Patients Attending Outpatient Department of Ophthalmology in a Tertiary Care Centre: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.

Introduction: Congenital colour vision deficiency may affect a person's day-to-day activity and may also affect the choice of occupation a person chooses. This study aims to find the prevalence of congenital colour vision defects in patients presenting in outpatient department of Ophthalmology in a tertiary care centre.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care centre after receiving ethical clearance from the Institutional Review Board of Kathmandu Medical College and Teaching Hospital (Reference number: 1006202102). The study was conducted for a 3 months period from 2021 July to 2021 September. Research participants were selected by the convenience sampling technique. A detailed ophthalmological examination was performed and colour vision was tested using Ishihara pseudoisochromatic colour vision chart. Only congenital colour vision defects were included in the study. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20.0 was used for data analysis. Point estimate at 95% confidence interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data.

Results: The overall prevalence of congenital colour vision deficiency was 14 (5.24%) (2.54-7.86 at 95% Confidence Interval). The prevalence of congenital colour vision defects in females was 1 (0.74%) and in males was 13 (9.77%). The mean age of the participants with congenital colour vision deficits was 27.42±7.90 years.

Conclusions: The prevalence of congenital colour vision deficiency was similar to the prevalence in other studies done in a similar setting. Awareness should be raised about this condition and people need to be screened at an early age to prevent disappointments in career choices later in life.

Keywords: colour vision defect; Nepal; prevalence.