Background chromatic contrast preference in cases with age-related macular degeneration

Abstract

Objective: To identify background chromatic contrast preferred subjectively by patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Methods: Prospective observational case series. Study subjects with AMD were recruited and compared to a control group of study subjects with normal vision. Study subjects were presented with letter size printed sheets of white paper with randomly typed 2 M size standard black optotypes. Chromatic contrast was created with colored plastic sheets positioned on top of the black on white printed sheets. The 4 major color hues which were selected for testing were blue, yellow, green and red. Study subjects were required to identify background contrast best preferred for viewing at the end of 4 trial sequences. Results: 40 subjects with AMD were recruited together with 57 study subjects with normal vision. In either the control group or the group with AMD subjects the majority's chromatic preference for background was yellow (56.14%, p = 0.42 and 71.67%, p = 0.006 respectively) with subjects with AMD preferring yellow color background significantly more than subjects with normal vision (p = 0.0002). Conclusions: Yellow color background seems to be preferred by most of healthy and AMD eyes. This preference may be modulated by factors such as the yellow-blue vision processing channel and/or luminosity differences produced by selectively transmitted light.

Keywords

• Low vision rehabilitation
• Color vision
• Chromatic contrast
• Contrast sensitivity