A CONTEMPORARY REVIEW OF GENETICS, EPIDEMIOLOGY AND DIAGNOSTIC INSIGHTS INTO RED GREEN COLOR BLINDNESS

Abstract

Red green color blindness is also called red green color vision deficiency. This is a common visual deficiency in people who have difficulty seeing the difference between red and green colors. The term, color blindness refers to the people who can see color but they don’t know what the color is. For example, many people see red as green, brown as gray, and green as yellow. This disease is a genetic disorder present from birth. In most cases, it is caused by abnormalities in the color-sensing cone cells of the eye.  Normal color vision mainly depends on the type of cone cells in the retina of the eye. These cones are sensitive to blue, green, and red light. The brain combines them to create a full range of color we see. Red–green color blindness happens mainly because of problems in the red (L-cone) or green (M-cone) cells. The probability of having red green color blindness is higher in men than women with about 8% of men and less than 1% of women affected by this kind of genetic disorder. These problems are linked to gene locations on the X chromosome which explains why men are affected more than women. This difficulty can affect learning and daily life activities especially in the schools where colors are used in books, charts, and teaching materials.  A child with color blindness may struggle to understand lessons that depend on colors. Colorblindness can limit job choices such as pilots, electricians, doctors, engineers and designers which require accurate color recognition. Over time, scientists have tried different ways to classify red green color blindness. Research shows that color blindness is not same for everyone.