Abstract
Color vision deficiency (CVD) affects clinical performance in color-dependent tasks. While studies have reported a high prevalence of CVD among health science students in several Asian countries, no data are available from Vietnam. To evaluate the prevalence and identify factors correlated with CVD among first-year health science students in Vietnam. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among all first-year students in the 2024–2025 academic year. CVD was first screened using the online Ishihara test questionnaire. Students who made five or more errors on this questionnaire were subsequently referred for confirmatory ophthalmic examination. 1,491 students were included. Overall, 1.9% (28/1,491) were clinically confirmed to have CVD. Male students had a 16-fold higher odds of color vision deficiency than female students (OR = 16.60; 95% CI: 5.32–82.8). Students with less than 7 h of daily sleep were correlated with twice the risk level compared to those with a longer sleep duration (OR = 2.33; 95% CI: 1.10–5.00). Our findings underscore the importance of early screening of CVD, particularly among medical and pharmacy students. Identifying correlated factors, including sex and sleep duration, underscores the necessity of prioritizing screening for first-year students, thereby facilitating informed academic planning and future career guidance.
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The study protocol was reviewed and approved by Thai Binh University of Medicine and Pharmacy (Approval code: 528, date of approval: April 01, 2025). The study was performed according to the good clinical practices recommended by the Declaration of Helsinki and its amendments. All participants provided their informed consent before participating to the study. Identifying information (names and class codes) was stored in a password-protected file separate from the analytical dataset. Only the research team had access to this file for the purpose of contacting students for confirmatory examinations. Before data analysis, all identifiers were removed and replaced with anonymous study codes to ensure confidentiality.
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Giang, L.C., Bui, Y.V., Nguyen, H.L. et al. Prevalence of color vision deficiency among first-year health science students at a medical university in Vietnam. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-53435-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-53435-1
