2019 Volume 26 Issue 2 Pages 55-64
Cataract, vision yellowing, and a combination of these two symptoms are three common visual problems among elderly people. A study, involving 20 female students, was conducted to clarify the ability of the elderly to distinguish different colors of tablets, and round-shaped (with a diameter of 7 mm) pieces of paper of 90 colors (12 color phases including 7 tones and six achromatic colors) were used. The students were asked to wear a pair of glasses that would simulate the above-mentioned three symptoms. Students with “the combination of cataract and vision yellowing” had the poorest vision, but their scores increased with the time required to distinguish the colors. As for students with vision yellowing, those with poorer vision required more time to distinguish the colors, but their scores were lower. When the students with the three symptoms distinguished different colors with a bright tone, their scores were the highest with the largest number of color phases and the second highest with a light tone. It was the easiest for the students to distinguish white, from other colors. Combinations of white and 8 colors with bright tones are expected to effectively prevent the elderly from taking wrong oral drugs.
