Research
Refractory Errors and Color Blindness among Truck Drivers - A Pilot Study.
There are about 5 million truck drivers in India.
As the vision sense plays a prominent role in their day to day activities which has a key role in safe driving on Indian roads, their visual tasks/vision sense needs to be checked periodically.
The quality of vision depends upon three factors: 1. A reasonably good visual acuity, 2: Absence of colour vision deficiency, 3: Absence of night blindness. Hence, I have chosen to screen truck drivers to detect visual abnormalities that hamper their driving abilities.
The study carried out an interventional prospective study on truck drivers.
Truck drivers are screened at their resting places after obtaining their prior consent to detect the basic visual disabilities that interfere with their profession, viz refractive errors, colour vision deficiency and night blindness.
Their visual acuity was checked by using standard Snellen's test type charts as used by a qualified eye specialist, colour blindness using standard Ishiharas colour vision plates and are asked for the presence of night blindness.
The results were properly tabulated. The study was done in 2 months period and 140 truck drivers have been screened.
Out of 140 truck drivers screened under this study, the no of truck drivers with visual acuity 6/6 (normal vision) is 87(62.14%).The no of truck drivers with refractive errors is 40(28.57%).
Of the 40 truck drivers with refractive errors 11 are having myopia, 20 are having hypermetropia and 9 are found to have astigmatism.
Irrespective of refractive errors 44 truck drivers are having presbyopia (inability to see near objects).The no of truck drivers with colour blindness is 0 and those with night blindness is also 0.
Out of 140 truck drivers screened under this study 40(28.57%) are found to have defective vision (refractive errors) and most of the truck drivers having defective vision are identified within the age of 41 to 60 and above 60 years (25).
This indicates that the above age group drivers should be screened frequently to detect visual defects and they are also encouraged to wear corrective glasses (spectacles) to have the optimum visual abilities.
None of the drivers have colour blindness and night blindness.