Determination of Colorblindness Among Public Secondary School Children in Erbil City

Achromatic vision is a disorder that impairs a person's ability to recognize or perceive certain color types. The cause is mainly genetic, X-linked recessive inheritance, and consequently more frequent in men than in women. The aim of this research was to determine the frequency of colorblindness among secondary school pupils (male and female) in Erbil city. The research was carried out at five secondary schools (Baydax, Bray, Kaiwan, Sarhaldan, and Snubar). Prospective research of 676 students (219 males, 457 females) has been carried out to determine the frequency of color-blindness. The students’ age range (11-17 years). The Ishihara Pseudo-Isochromatic Color Plates 24 edition was used to assess the students. If the student was colorblind, he or she was further classified into two categories (Deutan, Protan). The obtained data was compiled and evaluated to determine the color blindness prevalence, different forms of color blindness prevalence as well as gender-specific prevalence. The results showed that, among 676 participants 14 (2.07 %) were colorblind. Six (0.88%) out of the 14 colorblind students were males, whereas 8 (1.18%) were females. The frequency of color-blindness is observed to be higher in females than in males. In this investigation, only red-green colorblindness was detected. 5 (0.73%) of the 14 colorblind pupils were Protan, whereas 9 (1.33%) were Deutan. The total colorblindness was not observed.