Spatial vision of swimmers and handball players at a younger school age

The aim of this study is to assess the quality of stereoscopic vision in children of younger school age (n = 60) with regard to sports activities (handball, swimming), regularly performed by these children. In order to determine the level of stereopsis, the standardized test “Titmus stereo test” was used. At the same time, the initial history of sports-physical activities was carried out to receive more objective interpretation of the results. For the statistical processing of the gained data (Statistica 8.0), the nonparametric method Mann-Whitney U test was used. Other parameters were expressed by means of frequency, averages, and percentage representation in charts. The data were processed using the Mann-Whitney U test. The following values were calculated: Z = -1.97; p = 0.05. The observed data support our hypothesis that physical activity connected with a strong activation of visual and brain functions could affect the quality of individual elements of visual space depth perception, such as stereopsis or myopia. The median values of stereoscopic vision levels in handball players (9) and swimmers (7) are demonstrably given in favour of handball players. Handball players clearly dominate also in the frequency of excellent results achieved in the test of stereoscopic vision (values 9 and 10). On the basis of the statistical results, we can accept the determined hypothesis validated by the “Titmus stereo test” test of stereopsis, and we can state that the quality of stereopsis in handball players is higher than in swimmers.