The Influence of Age on Performance in the Panel D‐15 Colour Vision Test

The colour vision of the better eye of 220 elderly people (mean age 74 years) was examined by using the Panel D‐15 test in order to determine how often unselected elderly people fail this test and which types of defects are present. Of the 16 subjects who failed the test, 8 had a tritan defect, one had a protan defect and one a deutan defect (both men), and 6 could not be classified. Eleven persons could not perform the test and most of these had very low visual acuity. Five of the 8 tritan cases had severe macular degeneration and of the 6 subjects (5 women, 1 man) who could not be classified, 3 also had severe macular degeneration. Three subjects, one a woman who had a tritan defect, and one woman and one man who could not be classified, had eyes that, apart from the senile discoloration of the lens, were otherwise normal. According to the present study it seems that senile discoloration of the human lens may be the cause of failure in the Panel D‐15 test.