Color blindness is a genetic disease caused by mutations related to the pair of sex chromosomes (in women it is XX and in men it is XY). People with color blindness are caused by a mutation or lack of a gene on the X chromosome, causing a disorder of the light receptor cells in the eye needed to distinguish colors.
People with color blindness have a reduced ability to perceive colors. The risk of color blindness is higher in men than in women. There are many factors that cause color blindness:
- Congenital: The patient loses the ability to see blue or yellow.
- Due to side effects of drugs: Some drugs have the ability to affect cardiovascular drugs, blood pressure, infections, neurological disorders...
- Due to complications from some chronic diseases: diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's...
- Due to age and aging: vision and the ability to distinguish colors also gradually decrease as age increases, causing color blindness in the elderly.
The most common way to test for color blindness is:
- Ishihara Color Blindness Test: This color blindness test is for people who cannot distinguish red and green pigments. Your doctor will ask you to look at a series of circles with dots of different colors and sizes. Some dots form shapes or numbers with one to two digits. If you belong to the red-green color blind group, you will have a hard time recognizing those shapes, or even not seeing them.
- HRR color blindness test: This test is similar to Ishihara but helps screen for blue-yellow vision problems.
- Cambridge color blindness test: Similar to the Ishihara color blindness test, except it takes place on a computer.
- Color blindness test with dyschromia testing glasses: Doctors use this test to test for color blindness and determine whether there is a problem with your seeing red and green.
- Farnsworth–Munsell 100 color blind test kit: This kit uses blocks or dowels of different shades of the same color. Your task is to arrange this color blindness test table in a certain order. This test checks whether you can get nuanced changes in color.
Latest color blindness test chart model in 2024? Still using popular test tables. Below are some common color blindness test samples:
(1) Ishihara color blindness test
(2) Cambridge color blindness test
(3) Farnsworth-Munsell color blindness test