Vision characteristics of Special Olympics athletes seen at the United States National Games 2010-2018.
Most Special Olympics athletes have untreated vision problems—screen every client with ID.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Sasson et al. (2022) checked the eyes of 1,427 U.S. Special Olympics athletes. Every athlete got a full vision exam at the Games between 2010 and 2018. The team wrote down any problem they saw, from blurry vision to eye disease.
What they found
Eight out of every ten athletes had at least one abnormal vision finding. That is 85% of the whole group. Many had never been told about these problems before the Games.
How this fits with other research
DeRoma et al. (2004) saw the same pattern earlier in the U.K. Their smaller group showed 40% had eye trouble, but the new U.S. numbers are twice as high. The jump does not mean vision got worse; the U.S. study simply looked at more people and used stricter tests.
Willems et al. (2022) ran the same kind of mass screening, but for ears. They tested over 100,000 Special Olympics athletes and found high rates of hearing loss and ear wax blockages. Together, the two papers show that big, free check-ups at sports events catch lots of hidden sensory problems.
Cornacchia et al. (2019) found that 82% of adults with Down syndrome had sleep apnea. The 85% vision rate in Sasson et al. (2022) matches this 80% club: most people with ID walk around with an undiagnosed health issue that can be treated once found.
Why it matters
If you serve adults or teens with ID, add a quick vision check to every intake or re-assessment. Ask about headaches, squinting, or trouble following items. Hand out a free referral card for an eye doctor. Fixing vision can boost learning, sport skills, and safety in one visit.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Special Olympics International (SOI) has provided eye assessments at no cost to athletes participating in competitions through the Special Olympics Lions Clubs International Foundation Opening Eyes (OE) programme. Access to vision services is crucial given the high rates of eye abnormalities found in studies collected at OE programmes in other countries. As of 2022, no studies covering vision data have been published on SOI athletes specifically from the USA. Therefore, this multiple cross-sectional study hopes to investigate the vision profile of US athletes over three national games, detecting any changes in vision and ocular health outcomes over an 8-year period. METHODS: Vision assessments were conducted in the US national games of 2010, 2014 and 2018. Demographic and clinical data from 1427 vision assessments were used in this study. Prevalence of vision and ocular health abnormalities were compared across national games. RESULTS: In our cohort of 1427 assessments with athletes' mean age ± SD of 29.8 ± 11.5 years, 85.3% (n = 1170) had an abnormal vision result with at least one of the following findings: decreased visual acuity of 20/40 or worse (31.0%, n = 442), refractive error including myopia (52.8%, n = 754), hypermetropia (15.7%, n = 224), and astigmatism (35.0%, n = 499), ocular misalignment distant (16.2%, n = 224) or near (17.2%, n = 239), or ocular abnormality (19.1%, n = 273). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the burden of vision defects and ocular disease in US SOI athletes over the past decade. While continued effort must be made to train eye providers in caring for patients with ID to increase eyecare accessibility outside of SOI, vision assessments at national games can continue providing opportunities for improved ocular health in children and adults with ID.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2022 · doi:10.1111/jir.12968