The impacts of abnormal color vision on people's life: an integrative review

Abstract

Background: This article shows an integrative review on the impact that abnormal color vision may have on the daily routine of individuals.

Purpose: We followed the PRISMA guidelines for reviews and carried out researches in four databases (Pubmed, Lilacs, Scopus, and Web of Science) using keywords related to the impact of abnormal color vision.

Method: Initially, 805 articles were retrieved and after a first filtering stage, we selected 74 articles for a detailed analysis of the abstracts in which it was found that a total of 20 studies were in fact related to the topic of this review. We then read the selected studies in full and those included in the final selection were analyzed and categorized into specific topic groups of findings. Seven categories were created in total: "impact on daily routine activities", "occupational impact", "impact on product choice motivation", "emotional impact", "impact on school or professional qualification", "impact on self-care and health", and "advantages".

Results: From the definition of these categories we could understand that people with some degree of color vision loss face challenges in different aspects of their daily life, especially in their work activities. Still, the amount of research and hence technical support which could be offered to this population is restricted. Additionally, the scarce availability of publications on the topic and the fact that they include very specific groups of people, such as drivers and medical students, allow us to draw only partial conclusions about the all possible impacts yield by such perceptual difference since they observe the impact of the color-vision deficiency in their daily routine from a specific and precise point of view.

Conclusions: A broader view of the impact of this problem on the daily life of its carriers is fundamental for implementing strategies that allow such people to be included in all sorts of activities or for the impact of this sensory change to be decreased or treated in a way that would reduce the detrimental impacts.

Keywords: Color blindness; Color perception; Color vision; Color vision defects; Dyschromatopsia; Impact; Visual function.