Abstract
Purpose:
Congenital color blindness affects 6 to 8% of the male caucasian population. Recent developments point to gene therapy as a possible treatment for this type of impairment. However, little is known regarding the impact of dyschromatopsia on people with congenital color blindness. Questionnaires assessing quality of life in vision research have been effective in revealing the impact of the visual losses. However, issues related to color vision are still largely absent from these instruments.The objective of this work is to evaluate the impact of congenital dyschromatopsia on the life of adults
Methods:
We investigated different dimensions of the impact of color blindness in everyday life, based on the analysis of the content of interviews - using the Sphinx software (Le Sphinx, UK). Twelve male participants were interviewed (age = 33.6 years old ± 9.9; educational level between undergraduate and graduate school). All participants underwent psychophysical color vision assessment - using the Cambridge Colour Test (Cambridge Research Systems, UK) - as well as genotyping of the opsin genes (Gentra Systems - QUIAGEM, Dusseldorf, Germany). The results were compared to those from a control group for psychophysical assessment and genetics of color vision. (age = 27,1 years old ± 4,7)
Results:
Dyschromatopsias had direct negative impact on professional daily life activities in 27% of the individuals; 12% of the participants found to be color blind during childhood as a result of self-assessment; 22% considered that their vision was good; 60% revealed that life would be no different if they had no visual defect; 29% depended on someone else in their daily life and 30% would like to undergo treatment for color blindness cure. The psychophysical colour vision results revealed: Protan: 320 ± 129,61; Deutan: 684,45 ± 392,2 Tritan: 76,64 ± 24,3 and control group Protan: 50 ± 26,5 Deutan: 50,2 ± 16,9 e Tritan: 77,5 ± 26,9. Genetic analysis confirmed the psychophysical results
Conclusions:
Color blindness has an impact on individuals, as revealed by semi-structured interviews. However, the extent of the impact is not homogeneous among subjects most participants had different difficulties in daily life, mostly related to professional activity developed. A questionnaire being designed based on these results might constitute a tool for identifying individuals who are more strongly affected by congenital dyschromatopsia