Contact Lenses and Visual Skills in Line Hockey

Abstract

Relevance: This article marks the beginning of a study on how the use of protective helmets, compensated with eyeglasses or contact lenses, affects the visual skills of athletes.
Purpose: To showcase real cases of contact lens application in the sport of hockey and observe how their use may impact the visual skills of athletes. As a secondary objective, the response of visual skills in cases with and without protective helmets, compensated with eyeglasses or contact lenses, is examined.
Case Report: The sample consists of three children, two male and one female, aged between 13 and 14 years old, attending school years ranging from 7th to 9th grade. They are all affiliated with the Rollybears Club and according to the questionnaire, all three athletes have a high level of physical activity, with visual acuities ranging from 1.0 to 1.5 with correction. Visual skills tests were conducted at the Optometric Clinic of the Faculty of Optics and Optometry at the Complutense University of Madrid.
Conclusions: Three real cases of contact lens adaptation in young athletes practicing hockey with optometric visual skills have been presented. The responses of visual skills in cases with and without protective helmets, compensated with eyeglasses or contact lenses, were showcased, although there was insufficient sample size to verify differences in the analyzed conditions. Further research in this field with a larger sample size is needed to obtain statistically analyzable results and provide insights into the performance of athletes' visual skills under limiting conditions.