Colour Blindness Among Male Professional Drivers: A Cross-sectional Study In Karachi

Authors

  • Samira Faiz
  • Sehrish Zehra
  • Farhan Qureshi
  • Seema Mumtaz

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51985/JBUMDC2018126

Keywords:

Colour Vision Deficiency (CVD)/Colour blindness, professional drivers

Abstract

Objective: To determine the frequency of color blindness among male professional drivers of Karachi- Pakistan and the
difficulties they experience while driving.
Study Design and Setting: A cross-sectional study was conducted aomng 300 male drivers with valid driving licenses
operating on local and long routes in Karachi.
Methodology: The study was done at various locations in the city of Karachi from September to November 2017. The
subjects were tested for vision and color blindness with the help of Snellen’s chart and Ishihara chart respectively. A précised
questionnaire was developed keeping in view the study objectives. SPSS version 21.0 was used for data entry and its
analysis. Each questionnaire was thoroughly studied and seen for missing data or information before entry. A written
informed consent about the study was provided to the subjects in the form of a plain language statement attached to the
questionnaire. This study was approved by the ethical review board of Karachi Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS).
Results: Amongst the 300 participants 7 (2.33 %) of the drivers were found to have complete color blindness while 2
(0.66%) were partially colour blind. They preferred day time driving and experience difficulties in recognizing traffic
signals and vehicle lights.
Conclusion: The frequency of colour blindness was found to be low but it was observed that colour blind drivers face a
lot of difficulties while driving. Therefore, easy and practical changes should be made, like shape-coding of signals, and
continuous research-based modifications are required to aid these drivers.

References

2002. NRC. Key Transportation Indicators: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

USA F. Logistics And Transportation Spotlight. The Logistics and Transportation Industry in the United States. 2018.

Yang Y, Fan XS, Tian CH, Zhang W, Li J, Li SQ. Health status, intention to seek health examination, and participation in health education among taxi drivers in jinan, china. Iran Red Crescent Med J. 2014;16(4):e13355.

Wang PC, Delp L. Health status, job stress and work-related injury among Los Angeles taxi drivers. Work. 2014;49(4):705-12.

Merecz-Kot D, Waszkowska M, Wezyk A. [Mental health status of drivers--Motor vehicle accidents perpetrators]. Med Pr. 2015;66(4):525-38.

Whitelegg J. The Health of Professional Drivers: Transport and General Workers Union; 1995.

Balasundaram R, Reddy SC. Prevalence of colour vision deficiency among medical students and health personnel. Malaysian family physician: the official journal of the Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia. 2006;1(2-3):52.

Deeb SS. The molecular basis of variation in human color vision. Clin Genet. 2005;67(5):369-77.

Al-Nabulsi J, Mesleh A, Yunis A, editors. Traffic light detection for colorblind individuals. Applied Electrical Engineering and Computing Technologies (AEECT), 2017 IEEE Jordan Conference on; 2017: IEEE.

Panat A, Kulkarni D. Prevalence of red-green color vision deficiency (cvd) among science students: a. H um Biol Rev. 2016.

Chhipa SA, Hashmi FK, Ali S, Kamal M, Ahmad K. Frequency of color blindness in pre-employment screening in a tertiary health care center in Pakistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2017;33(2):430-2.

Birch J. Worldwide prevalence of red-green color deficiency. J Opt Soc Am A Opt Image Sci Vis. 2012;29(3):313-20.

Krishnan P, Hashim N, Rani U, Lung JK. Survey on health status of heavy vehicle drivers in Klang valley. Med J Malaysia. 1998;53(4):449-51.

Anderson SW, Aksan N, Dawson JD, Uc EY, Johnson AM, Rizzo M. Neuropsychological assessment of driving safety risk in older adults with and without neurologic disease. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. 2012;34(9):895-905.

Whillans MG, Allen MJ. Color defective drivers and safety. Optom Vis Sci. 1992;69(6):463-6.

Whillans MG. Colour-blind drivers' perception of traffic signals. Canadian Medical Association Journal. 1983;128(10):1187.

Whillans MG. Colour-blind drivers and traffic signals. CMAJ. 1993;149(11):1630.

Cole BL. The handicap of abnormal colour vision. Clinical and Experimental Optometry. 2004;87(4-5):258-75.

Waugh D. Why are we blind to the colour blind? CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal. 1993;148(3):442.

Neitz M, Neitz J. Color vision defects. eLS. 2005.

Siddiqui QA, Shaikh SA, Qureshi TZ, Subhan MM. A comparison of red-green color vision deficiency between medical and non-medical students in Pakistan. Saudi medical journal. 2010;31(8):895-9.

Ahsana S, Hussain R, Fareed M, Afzal M. Prevalence of red-green color vision defects among Muslim males and females of Manipur, India. Iranian journal of public health. 2013;42(1):16.

Citirik M, Acaroglu G, Batman C, Zilelioglu O. Congenital color blindness in young Turkish men. Ophthalmic epidemiology. 2005;12(2):133-7.

Tagarelli A, Piro A, Tagarelli G, Lantieri PB, Risso D, Olivieri RL. Colour blindness in everyday life and car driving. Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica. 2004;82(4):436-42.

Cole BL. Colour blindness and driving. Clinical and Experimental Optometry. 2016;99(5):484-7.

Nwosu S, Osuntokun O, Ajayi B. The prevalence of subnormal vision among government motor vehicle drivers in Oyo State, Nigeria. Niger Med J. 1991;2:51-3.

Oladehinde M, Adeoye A, Adegbehingbe B, Onakoya A. Visual functions of commercial drivers in relation to road accidents in Nigeria. Indian journal of occupational and environmental medicine. 2007;11(2):71.

Downloads

Published

2019-06-05

How to Cite

Faiz, S. ., Zehra, S. ., Qureshi, F. ., & Mumtaz, S. . (2019). Colour Blindness Among Male Professional Drivers: A Cross-sectional Study In Karachi. Journal of Bahria University Medical and Dental College, 9(2), 124–127. https://doi.org/10.51985/JBUMDC2018126

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2019): Volume 9 Issue 2

Section

Original Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2019 Samira Faiz, Sehrish Zehra, Farhan Qureshi, Seema Mumtaz

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Journal of Bahria University Medical & Dental College is an open access journal and is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. which permits unrestricted non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0