ABSTRACT

Many studies have postulated the possibility of athletes possessing significantly better visual skills as compared to non-athletes. However, research on the specific visual parameters relevant to the sport remains under explored. In this study, we assessed the accomodation and vergence functions among local football athletes and non-athletes. A total of 50 healthy participants were included in the study (30 local athletes, 20 non-athletes). The battery of tests used in sports vision screening for this study included refraction, best corrected distance visual acuity, accommodation and vergence functions. The accommodation functions assessed were amplitude of accommodation and accommodation facility. Vergence functions included near point of convergence, and distance fusional vergence.  Repeated measures of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed no significant difference ( p > 0.05) in the visual parameters of local football athletes when they were compared according to position (goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, forward).  Independent t-test analysis of the visual parameters between local football athletes and non-athletes showed a significant difference in the accommodative facility of the right eye only (p=0.034). No significant difference was found for the amplitude of accommodation, near point of convergence and distance fusional vergence (p values > 0.05). These results indicated that different positions do not necessarily require different levels of visual skills and that local football athletes may not present a combination of better visual skills than non-athletes.

Keywords: Football, Accommodation, Vergence, Visual skill.