The ocular and visual characteristics of an athletic population.

BACKGROUND: Nine hundred and thirty-nine athletes of various ages and from varying levels of competition were part of a sports vision epidemiology project conducted by the Sports Vision Service at the Illinois Eye Institute, Chicago, Illinois. METHODS: Data were collected from sports vision screenings conducted from 1992 to 1995. The population consisted of participants in the 1994 and 1995 AAU Junior Olympic Games, members of the DePaul, Elmhurst, Illinois and College of DuPage athletic departments, and members of two local high school basketball programs, DuSable and Dunbar. The data collected were analyzed to determine the use of eye care services and the visual characteristics present in these elite athletic populations. RESULTS: Analysis of the data showed that athletes competing at high levels of competition do have visual problems. Twenty five percent of our population had never had a complete eye examination, 29% had visual symptoms, and 28% had less than 20/25 acuity through their habitual sports prescription. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study imply that the athletic populations at all levels are in need of eye care services. Protective eyewear is not often used in this athletic population. Comparing the results found in our population to other reported results in the general population indicate similar rates of refractive error.

Attitudes toward integration of complementary and alternative medicine with hospital-based care.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize those who have used, expect to use, or are opposed to the use of holistic therapies, especially in a conventional medical (hospital) setting. SAMPLE DESCRIPTION AND METHODS: Cross-sectional survey of a random sample of Hamilton-Wentworth residents between March and June 1998 (n = 416; response rate, 63%); analysis used logistic regression. RESULTS: Thirty-seven percent (37%) used at least one holistic therapy in the previous year: the three most common were chiropractic, massage, and herbal/phytology. The three most common reasons for use were general health, fatigue, and arthritis. Thirty-three percent (33%) would use holistic therapy in the future. Barriers to use were lack of information, perceived ineffectiveness, and cost; approximately 40% agreed they would only use holistic therapies with medical advice. Approximately 13% were opposed to holistic therapy and objected to its use in hospitals. Younger age, preference for holistic therapy over conventional medicine, and prior use of holism independently predicted high likelihood for future use. Lower income and high self-perceived health were associated with negative attitude toward use of holistic therapies in hospital. CONCLUSION: Most respondents would accept integration of holistic techniques into a hospital; therapies would be more acceptable if there were clear evidence of their efficacy. A few might find their opinion of a sponsoring hospital lowered by such integration.

Vision profile of the athletes of the 1995 Special Olympics World Summer Games.

BACKGROUND: Special Olympics were organized in 1968 by Eunice Shriver as a program of physical fitness for individuals with mental handicaps. Numerous epidemiologic studies report an increase in visual problems in this population. METHODS: A comprehensive vision screening was conducted at the 1995 Special Olympic World Summer Games to identify the prevalence of visual anomalies in this select group. Testing included visual acuity, refractive error, ocular motor skills, stereopsis, color vision, contrast sensitivity, eye-hand coordination, eye-foot coordination, and an ocular health evaluation. RESULTS: Nine hundred five special athletes, ranging in age from 8 to 58 years, participated in the screening. More than 65% of the participants had not received eye care for more than 3 years. The most commonly reported symptom was difficulty in seeing. Other ocular health problems included refractive errors, poor distance monocular acuity, and strabismus. CONCLUSION: The results of the study indicate that Special Olympians have a high prevalence of vision anomalies that may go undetected. This population demonstrates a high prevalence of refractive errors, decreased visual acuity, ocular health problems, and strabismus. In addition, based on the number of individuals who have not received eye care within the last year, there is a need to increase the availability of vision care to these and other people with mental retardation.

Effects of changes in lighting level on performance with the AcuVision 1000.

BACKGROUND: The AcuVision 1000 Trainer is an instrument designed to assess and train eye-hand coordination in athletes. Variable environmental conditions are encountered when sports-vision screenings are performed. The effect of these factors on scores attained on sports-vision testing equipment is an important consideration when results for different populations are compared. METHODS: This study investigated the effect of different lighting levels on subject performance. Twenty-five subjects performed three trials at each of three lighting levels (day-light, dim room, and dark. The presentation order of lighting level was counterbalanced and subjects were randomly assigned to the various presentation orders. RESULTS: The results indicate a statistically significant difference in performance at the various levels. High lighting levels decreased scores significantly, whereas there was no significant difference between the two lower levels. CONCLUSIONS: This study emphasizes the effect lighting can have on performance, and illustrates the need to properly control environmental factors through well-defined testing protocols for the use of the AcuVision 1000.

Clinical implications of the erroneous use of the Verhoeff Stereopter: a case report.

BACKGROUND: The Verhoeff Stereopter test is currently used by some branches of the military to evaluate depth perception for career placement. A 22-year-old male presented for consultation after failing the Verhoeff stereopter test during an examination for Marine flight training school. METHODS: A complete vision examination was conducted. Stereopsis was evaluated using the Verhoeff Stereopter, Randot Stereotest and the Multi-stereo test. RESULTS: A complete visual analysis revealed a mild refractive error, no ocular pathology, and normal binocularity. Stereopsis testing with the Verhoeff stereopter, Randot stereotest, and Multi-Stereo tests were normal. Subsequent investigation revealed that the original military tester did not follow proper testing protocol. When the erroneous testing condition was analyzed, we found that the stimulus horizontal disparity was eliminated. This lack of horizontal disparity makes it impossible to pass the test. We confirmed our findings by presenting the correct testing conditions and the erroneous testing conditions to five subjects with normal stereopsis. All subjects passed the Verhoeff test under standard protocols but failed under the erroneous condition. The critical factor that causes the elimination of horizontal disparity is identified. CONCLUSION: Although this instrument is not popular among vision care practitioners, it is being utilized by various organizations. An understanding of the theoretical basis for the instrument would therefore be beneficial.

High prevalence of cleft lip among the Bari Indians of western Venezuela.

Cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL +/- P) is of high prevalence in an isolated, inbred indigenous population of the Venezuelan rain forest: 12 contemporary probands are known in a population of 1200. CL +/- P is familial in this population. One kindred contains four affected siblings and a total of eight probands. The mode of transmission of CL +/- P is under investigation through the collection and biological verification of genealogies and through screening for selected sequence-based polymorphisms. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays were successfully applied to recover DNA from blood dried onto filter paper in the field. Eleven samples from probands and their first-degree relatives have been analyzed for DNA sequence-based polymorphisms for TGF-A and HOX7. No significant linkages for either locus were found. Evaluation of the distribution of probands in four genealogies indicates that CL +/- P could be transmitted as an autosomal recessive trait in this population. We believe this is the first report of this mode of transmission for nonsyndromic CL +/- P.

What the literature says about sports vision.

The demands on the visual system during athletic performance are among the most rigorous of any activity. Because vision influences the capacity of an athlete to perform the tasks of a sport, scientific research has been performed to investigate the link between skill and vision. Most research efforts have been directed toward identifying the visual skills necessary for sports and determining if the skills of athletes differ from those of nonathletes. These efforts, though incomplete, have suggested that certain visual skills are important to performance in selected sports and that the visual skills of athletes and nonathletes do differ. There is as yet a paucity of research to support the hypothesis that the visual skills of athletes can be enhanced by visual training and that enhanced visual skills will result in improved athletic performance. Additional research efforts are needed to answer the many intriguing questions posed by the relationship between vision and sports.

Unbiased sex ratios among the Bari: an evolutionary interpretation.

PIP: The Bari, a group of Indians living in a South American rainforest, were studied in order to determine whether there were any differences in the proportions of sons and daughters at birth and/or later ages, and whether costs associated with offspring of each sex differed with unequal rates of survival as predicted by Fisher's hypothesis. Predictions derived from the Trivers and Willard model, where parents favor offspring of the sex requiring greater parental investment, were also tested. During 1988 and 1989, various Bari villages in Venezuela were visited. A total of 59 people (32 women and 27 men) thought to be in their mid-forties or older were interviewed asked to recount their life histories by questions on numbers and names of spouses and children. The dataset was complemented with genealogical and demographic information including a census taken in 1982 and information from birth records. Data were used to reconstruct the reproductive histories of 110 adults (55 women: 32 interviewed and 23 whose spouses were interviewed, and 5 men: 27 interviewed and 28 from spouses' interviews) of post-reproductive ages presumably born more than 40-50 years ago. The sex ratio at birth was approximately 1, and the relative proportions of male and female children alive were similar at ages starting at birth and ending at 15 years of age. When miscarriages and stillbirths were added to the number of live births, the proportions continued to be similar. During the prenatal stage a G-test of goodness of fit indicated that boys were more likely to die than girls. A trend, though not statistically significant, was found for higher male mortality during the 1st year of life. Sons and daughters were equally costly. Sex ratios at the end of the period of dependence were slightly biased toward daughters, confirming Fisher's hypothesis. On the other hand, no support was found for the Trivers-Willard model of sex ratios.^ieng

No excess of DR*3/4 in Ashkenazi Jewish or Hispanic IDDM patients.

The gene frequencies, haplotype relative risks, and zygotic assortments of HLA-DR in three ethnically defined samples of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) patients were determined in a prospective family study. Although DR3 and DR4 were positively associated with IDDM in the probands of 123 northern European, 94 Ashkenazi Jewish, and 49 New York Hispanic families, significant excess of DR*3/4 heterozygotes was observed only among the probands from families of northern European ancestry. There was also a significant decrease in the frequency of Bw62,DR4 haplotypes derived by northern European patients from their mothers compared with their fathers. This difference, together with data reported in the literature, suggests that the expressivity of the susceptible genotype(s) in IDDM patients may be modified by protective maternal effects associated with Bw62,DR4 and probably other DR4 haplotypes. Samples of IDDM patients from populations with high frequencies of these modifiers should have different DR-gene frequencies contributed by fathers and mothers, capable of accounting for the observed Hardy-Weinberg disequilibrium. We postulate that, because the mechanism of action of these modifiers is distinct from that of the susceptibility gene, the difference must be considered in devising strategies for elucidation of the mode of inheritance of the disease and for understanding the molecular nature of the susceptibility.