Association of sports vision with age, gender, and static visual acuity among nonathletic population

Jiahn-Shing Lee; Yen-Hsiu Liu; Wei-Min Chen; Ken-Kuo Lin; Shih-Tsung Chang; Ai Yin Lim; Chiun-Ho Hou; Wei-Sheng Peng; Lai-Chu See

doi:10.4103/tjo.tjo_60_20

Association of sports vision with age, gender, and static visual acuity among nonathletic population

Taiwan J Ophthalmol. 2020 Nov 6;12(1):53-60. doi: 10.4103/tjo.tjo_60_20. eCollection 2022 Jan-Mar.

Authors

Jiahn-Shing Lee¹, Yen-Hsiu Liu^{1

2}, Wei-Min Chen³, Ken-Kuo Lin¹, Shih-Tsung Chang⁴, Ai Yin Lim³, Chiun-Ho Hou¹, Wei-Sheng Peng³, Lai-Chu See^{3

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ophthalmology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan.
² Department of Physical Education, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan.
³ Department of Public Health, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan.
⁴ Office of Physical Education, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan.
⁵ Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou.
⁶ Biostatistics Core Laboratory, Molecular Medicine Research Center, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan.

Abstract

Purpose: Excellent vision is essential to performing well in sports. Sports vision includes visual, perceptual, cognitive, and oculomotor tasks that enable athletes to process and respond to what is seen. We aimed to examined how sports vision parameters - dynamic visual acuity (DVA), eye movement (EM), peripheral vision (PV), and momentary vision (MV) - varied with age and sex and assessed how static visual acuity (SVA) affect sports vision performance.

Materials and methods: Sports vision was assessed at 45 cm distance at best-corrected SVA in 310 nonathletic participants (age, 6-60 years). Among these 310 participants, 108 university students underwent their sports vision test at 45 cm and 2.5 m distance, with and without glasses. The 4 sports vision parameters were measured by Athlevision software package installed to a laptop. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare sports vision performance in relation to age group and sex. Repeated-measures ANOVA with 1 within-factor (4 conditions) were used to analyze how sports vision varied among the near/far distance with/without glasses conditions.

Results: DVA increased during childhood, peaked during the 20s or 30s, and gradually decreased during middle age (P < 0.0001). DVA was significantly better in males than in females (P = 0.0001). The other 3 sport vision parameters - EM, PV, and MV - exhibited similar age trends (P < 0.001) but did not differ between two sexes. The university students with mild myopia had similar DVA, EM, and PV at both near and far distances, with and without correction; but moderate or severe myopic students with uncorrected vision had worse DVA, EM, and PV at 2.5 m than at 45 cm.

Conclusion: Low SVA in uncorrected myopia significantly interferes the performance in sport vision tests applied in this study, especially in far distance. Improve static vision, such as myopic correction, may significantly improve sports vision, which is important in athletic performance and safety.

Keywords: Age; nonathletic; sex; sports vision; static visual acuity.