The practice of physical activity is linked to the health of the eyes, since visual skills are necessary in different modalities, adding safety and efficiency to the exercise.
The alert is from the Brazilian Council of Ophthalmology (CBO), through the Vision in Sport campaign. The proposal is to sensitize athletes, amateurs and professionals, as well as coaches, teachers and managers about the importance of preventive eye exams.
The initiative includes the distribution of informative material on different platforms and the holding of an educational marathon on the CBO channel on YouTube. The online event takes place next Saturday (11) from 10 pm. During the program, testimonials, lectures, debates, interviews and reports will be shown to help better understand the relationship between sport and eye health.
visual skills
According to the council, the visual abilities that can interfere with sports practice include: depth perception; eye movements; visual reaction time; peripheral vision; eye-hand-body coordination; and visual memory. The athlete who does not evolve, according to the entity, may be reflecting visual problems that he is unaware of and that are detectable in exams.
Also according to the CBO, some visual abilities play an important role in the athlete’s performance. In ball sports, for example, it is common for the player not to constantly look at the ball, but to take advantage of the visual stimuli in the surroundings to make the next pass. The same happens with boxers, who are used to not looking at opponents’ fists.
Eye sensitivity to contrast and colors is another condition considered important when analyzed in athletes. Subtle differences in colors can be influenced by the lighting in the space, such as shadows and shade variations. A deficiency in color recognition can, for example, impair the recognition of uniforms and signal flags in a match.
Schedule
Among other issues, the Vision in Sport campaign will promote debates around public policies. Participation is expected from representatives of the Ministry of Health and the councils of state and municipal health secretaries, as well as spokespersons for medical entities and sports confederations of various modalities.
“In these rounds, the intention is to identify alternatives to expand the population’s access to eye care, which can offer greater security to the health of practitioners”, informed the council.
Next Saturday, athletes, influencers and medical experts will talk about the interaction between eye health and sport. Among the subjects discussed are the importance of ophthalmological follow-up, adherence to healthy habits and vision care during the practice of physical activities.
“Issues such as first aid in case of eye trauma, evaluation of high-performance athletes and the role of multidisciplinary teams in these cases will also be analyzed”, concluded the CFO.
