Color discrimination and accuracy of blood glucose self-monitoring in type I diabetic patients.

Abstract

To determine the importance of color discrimination ability regarding accuracy in the self-monitoring of blood glucose. Two hundred two insulin-dependent (type I) diabetic patients performed the Fansworth-Munsell 100-hue test and a second group of 159 type I diabetic patients performed a new Düsseldorf 26-hue test. Error scores in both tests were compared with error scores of patients' self-monitoring of blood glucose measurements with Chemstrip Haemoglucotest 20-800 strips. Color discrimination ability decreased with age, diabetes duration, and presence of retinopathy. It was independent of the degree of glycemia and accuracy of self-monitoring of blood glucose. Impaired color vision by itself is no reason to abandon self-monitoring of blood glucose with visually read strips.